Life in Pieces
by Lore55
Summary: Starts and snippets from projects that I'm working on. Mostly OC centric
1. Still Standing

**So, this is where I'm going to dump all the projects that I've only just started, that might never turn into anything. Almost all of them are OC x someone. Tell me what you think!**

* * *

 **Still Standing**

 _ **Iona had only ever wanted adventures. She didn't quite understand what it would take to get them. Marco x OC  
**_

* * *

"Did you hear? There are pirates on the island!"

"I heard that the one with the swords killed three hundred men!"

"I heard the one with the hat is a living demon!"

"Tch, as if there haven't been enough of those here already!"

Iona shook her head at the gossip that swirled around her. The old women always got this way whenever something happened on the island. They all, save Mrs. Caul, had very firm opinions on pirates. Those opinions being they were nothing but ruffians and thieves who should be hanged.

Iona didn't particularly care. Pirates were people and people she liked. She liked hearing about their lives and the places they'd been, the people they met and the things they'd seen. Things that she would never see. All she knew was this tiny island, she didn't think she would ever get the chance to leave it.

Iona snipped carefully at Mrs. Mul's hair, shortening it just enough that it would bounce the way that she liked. Mrs. Mul was picky, she would never let anyone except Iona's mother cut her hair, and then Iona herself. Dominique and Terry were out of luck.

The women, who had been coming to the salon for as long as Iona had been alive, kept on chatting about their new 'guests' on Marina Islands. Iona finished up with Mrs. Mul before she cleaned up quickly, listening with one ear. She wanted to get a look at the ship before they were gone.

"I'm going to lunch," she announced, running off before Terry could object. The older woman rolled her eyes fondly, but let her go. Everyone knew Iona wanted to leave. She wasn't exactly quiet about it.

She ran down the street, legs stretching beneath her. With a flash of silver light she launched herself up, over the high buildings that took up the city of Mercado. It was a maze of tall buildings packed together, most joined either by a bridge of a couple of feet or a single door. For a city that boasted no more than a few thousand it seemed, to a girl who had never been anywhere else, an endless labyrinth of dead ends and single person streets.

Iona's fingers brushed the shingles above Mr. Torina's flower shop before she dropped to the ground, right in front of Mrs. Lepson and her cat, Tilly, and her daughter, Milly, who was on a leash. Tilly yowelled and swiped at Iona's still-glowing leg. She took no offense, her pants taking the brunt of it.

"Morning Mrs. Lepson, morning Mill, Till," she waved at them cheerfully.

"Iona! Where are you going in such a hurry?" Mrs. Lepson pulled Milly's leash, forcing the troublesome six year old back to her side. The cat was much more well behaved.

"Haven't you heard? There's pirates at the docks!"

"And you're going to see the ship," Mrs. Lepson nodded, smiling a bit at her. "Well get going then, while the lights good. Tell your mother I wish her well."

"I will," Iona promised, before she ran past them, now on a straight path for the shore of Marina. She passed the faces she had known all her life, greeting some fondly. She knew everyone on the island. She knew their parents, she knew their kids, their cousins. She knew which neighbors agreed with each other and which spent most of their time fighting. She knew the ins and outs of every relationship that had happened for the last ten years.

She knew everything about everyone, and they, in turn, knew everything about her.

Iona finally cleared the last of the tall buildings, breaking out of the shadows and into the bright light of the day. For just an instant she was blinded by the light shining off the waves of the sea. It sparkled in her vision, waves winking brightly.

Iona stumbled and bumped into another person.

"Sorry," she smiled at them, her eyes still dazzled. All she could really make out was the purple of his shirt and the blue tattoo underneath it.

"No problem," the person, a man, passed her by, going towards the town. She didn't know his voice. A stranger!

Iona squinted into the sun, her breath catching when she could finally see. The ship was massive. She had never seen a boat so big, with three huge sails towering above a deck that could easily hold their entire town. Instead of a regular figurehead the whole front the ship looked like that face of a great whale. A black flag floated dutifully atop the middle mast.

Her eyes glowed softly and the parts of the ship that were too far to see normally abruptly became clearer. The flat had a white cross made of bones, and skull with a crescent moon over the top teeth. The desk was full of people running around, tying ropes and trading coins.

She blinked and the picture zoomed back out. There were more people on that crew than there were on Marina Island!

Iona was giddy. Who knew what stories she could bring back to her mother!

The girl took off to the dock, scrambling down the stairs that lead to the pier. Mr. Fawks, the harbormaster, was standing beside his shanty, watching the countless men and women march off the massive ship. He was incredibly pale.

"Hello, Mr. Fawks," Iona chirped, bouncing to a stop next to him.

He glanced at her, and smiled. Mr. Fawks was an aging gentleman, who's position as harbormaster was less one to keep the peace and more one to holler when someone was docking too close to another persons boat. Their little island didn't see much action, especially considering that it was in the Grand Line. They lived in a tiny bubble of boring.

"Hello, 'Liza. Are you here to see the ship?" as if he didn't already know the answer.

"Mmmm, I'm going to go to Beth's later," she nodded at him. "After I check on Mama. Is Doctor Pat back?"

Some of his smile fell away.

"Not yet. Sorry, little 'Liza," he shook his head.

"It's okay," she patted his arm and smiled back. She wasn't going to worry him. No one else needed to be worried about her Mama but her.

Iona watched a ship with Mr. Fawks for a good half hour more before she finally left, making her way back home. Some of her energy was gone now, so she wasn't jumping roof tops again or making a fuss. She walked the long road that wound through town until she had come out the other side, where the woods were. The Wood stretched all the way across the island, and her house sat right at the edge of it. Her uncle had bought the little house for her parents long before she had been born. He had been a man of gold, her Mama said. As good as his name, he would do anything for family.

Iona had never met him, or even her aunt. They, and her father, had died some time after she was born. She didn't remember them at all.

Iona hopped across the white stones that lead to the front door, shoes scuffing softly on the well worn rock. She patted Polka, their fat spotted cat, on her way in the door. She was quiet when she walked in, slipping off her shoes and going to the first bedroom.

Iona poked her head inside, looking at the still figure on the bed. The part of her that was always terrified of coming home to no one abated and she was able to breathe easier. Iona walked in, shutting the door quietly, and went to sit at the older woman's bedside.

Calico D. Roxie had once been a firecracker, but sickness had stolen her fire. Now she spent most of her days sleeping or reading while her once bright face withered away. Her hair had gone grey, her cheeks had shrunk in and her eyes sometimes looked right through Iona.

The young woman touched her Mama's hand and the silver glow spread from her to the elder Calico woman. Dark brown eyes opened to look at Iona and smile lifted her face. Roxie sat up, grabbed her daughter's hand in hers. Even with Iona giving her strength she was still weak. Weaker than she had been before she'd gotten sick.

Iona shoved the thoughts out of her head, violently.

"Hi, Mama," she said softly. Roxie touched her cheek and smiled.

"Do you have any stories for me tonight, little dove?" she brushed a few strands of Iona's hair back from where it had fallen out of her fishtail. Her fingers had gotten so thin.

"Not yet," she squeezed the woman's hand in her own, careful. "A ship came in today though, it's so big Mama! I'm going to Beth's later to see if I can find any good stories for you."

"When are you doing to go find your own adventures to tell me about, instead of bringing back other peoples?"

Iona looked away before she offered Roxie a weak smile.

"I'll go when you get better."

Roxie shook her head. "You can't be waiting about for me forever, little dove. Go to Baterilla and find your cousin, or get a ship and the world for yourself. You can't lie and say you don't want to."

"I can't just leave you here! Who would take care of you," she objected. She closed her eyes against the sting of them.

"A daughter shouldn't have to take care of her mother. It should be the other way around."

"I don't mind," Iona could barely hear her own voice. Her heart ached.

"I mind," Roxie pulled her hand away abruptly. Iona was so surprised she dropped the glow. "Go, go to Beth's. Find some stories."

The energy left her quickly. Iona tried to reach for her again but Roxie flipped her hand at her, dismissing her daughter and rolling on her side, away from the girl. Iona frowned at her back. She hesitated for a long minute before she finally left her Mama's room and went to get changed.

Maybe a few stories would take her mind away.


	2. Shatter Point

**Shatter Point**

 ** _Malory had always been drawn to the space between worlds, it was no surprise that she would find love in a boy from one of them. Ace x OC_**

* * *

There are certain places in the world where reality seemed to bend. Where time and space line up in a way that the air touches something that is not what is there and the world turns, ever so slightly. Playgrounds after dark, school buildings during summer break, rooftops at dawn and dusk. The long stretches of empty road where there's nothing but state signs and rest stops and the whole world seems to stretch out forever on the asphalt. Standing on a third story balcony after it rains and watching the mists rise to swallow the cars bellow in a bittersweet shimmer.

These were the kind of places that drew Malory in.

The places where 'Here' and 'There' were almost close enough to touch but everything was just an inch too far to the left or a jump too far up.

Malory liked going places like that. They weren't creepy and there was no sense of rightness of wrongness, but the place that hovered between them. She had never felt, in the one these places, like she did when she was walking alone to her car late at night. Not like she wasn't alone, not like someone else was there.

Sometimes, she thought she saw cracks. Lines in trees, splinters in snow, flickers in the open air. Sometimes she thought she saw past them. Where Here and There almost touched and she caught a glimpse of the There part. A flash of water in the middle of the woods, a flicker of movement where the wind was still. Sometimes she thought she heard people talking. Snatches of conversation.

 _Thought I saw Cherry and Mike down on third, but it was Cherry and Earl._

 _-didn't even have to kill the smoothie guy this time._

 _-a sale at Bask and Barnes! Thirty percent off!_

 _Weigh Anchor! We're due in Alabasta soon!_

She heard a lot of things. She never put much stock into them, most were easy to play off as kids nearby or echoes bouncing from a car she couldn't see.

Until the night where that no longer was the case. Until the night where she couldn't exactly deny that she heard it.

It started with the ground shaking. It rumbled, a low, painful groan that trembled under her feet. Malory, who had been carrying her dinner to the living room, promptly fell face first and destroyed her casserole with her boobs. The piano rattled and clattered out a pitiful tune that reminded her of _Crocodile Rock_.

It didn't stop there. The ground rumbled again some hours later, waking her up at exactly 3:33 AM. Malory didn't appreciate it. She got up, peered out at the frost layered field behind her house and squinted. Something glinted, red and yellow and orange, off in the distance. Wind blew across the tall grass, ripping up the sparkling frost into a cloud of ice that didn't settle for another half and hour.

Softly, so soft she wondered if she was still dreaming, someone whispered in the air.

 _Even though I've been good for nothing my whole life, even though I have the blood of a demon within me... You guys still loved me! Thank you so much!_

Malory had hoped that that was the end of it.

She should have known better. At 5:41 AM, ten minutes after she got up to get ready for work, she looked back out the window, into the darkness, and paused. There was a soft glow that hovered in the air, far off into the field. It was midway, between the back of her house and the garden she kept and the winding County Road 7 that curved behind her.

She wondered if the neighbors, Jake and Sam Madison, could see it down the road. Afraid to look away and have it vanish before she could find out what it was Malory forwent any and all common sense and walked out the back door, eyes never leaving the glow. It stayed there for nearly half a minute before it started to dim, then dropped towards the ground suddenly. Another heart beat and it swayed and disappeared into the tall grass.

Malory didn't think so much as acted, moth to the flame, and ran into the back. The screen door slapped behind her, cold air clawed at her bare arms and the ice pricked her feet painfully, crunching between her toes.

Malory ran.

Grass reached for her ankles, wrapped around her feet and pulled at her long pants. She should have grabbed a jacket.

She was going so fast, so focused on the air in front of her that she actually smashed right into what she was looking for and went tumbling to the ground. She yelped, scrapping her hand on a rock. She whined and looked at the peeled skin, and the blood starting to pool underneath. A glance at the sky showed her pink starting to burn away at the blackness of the new moon night.

She sat up, cradling her hand to her chest and very nearly had a heart attack when she looked over and saw that she had tripped over a _body_. A body that wasn't moving at all.

A body that was smoking.

"Son of a bitch."

Malory scrambled towards the person, ripping her shirt off and throwing it on top to try and put out the fire. She patted over the person, heart beating hard. She touched his neck, trying to remember how to check for a pulse. Was it by the jaw? Or the shoulder?

"Shit, shit, shit," she hissed. Something beat under her finger tips. She breathed a sigh of relief. Thank god.

Malory pulled her shirt off of him, now literally freezing her tits off, to check the damage. To her surprise he wasn't smoking, nor did he look burnt. There was a massive, circular scar on the middle of the back, erasing whatever had been beneath it. She could see purple lines going to his head and over each side of his ribs.

He was thin, she could see his elbows and his ribs. Carefully, Malory rolled him over onto his back. There was another scar across his front. He had black hair, and a freckles. Cute, but his cheeks were too sharp to be healthy. He wasn't wearing anything except a pair of black shorts.

He looked familiar.

He also didn't look like he was bleeding, or glowing, but he _felt_ wrong. He felt like liminal space itself.

The earth shook again and Malory saw a flicker of something in the air. An ocean, white walls, ice and a meteorite. It was gone before she could blink.

Malory sighed, slid her arm around his middle, and managed to drag the guy up. She got one of his arms around her shoulders and managed to walk them both back to the house, well aware that this was probably the stupidest thing she had ever done.

With her back turned, the air cracked and rippled. Something shiny and gold fell through, unseen.


	3. Kill the Boys

**Kill the Boys**

 _ **They wanted her to save their world. She wanted to take a nap. Eventual Marco x OC, minor Shanks x OC  
**_

* * *

 _It is said that at any given time there are seven near identical people wandering around the world. It is likely that none of them will ever meet each other. It is probable that they will never stumble into the family and friends of their strange twin._

 _Even more unlikely is that they will accidentally hijack their destiny._

Essa dropped her cup into the garbage and left the Starbucks, walking into the early morning chill. Autumn leaves floated around in gold and red, crunching under her boots. The smell of snow was in the air, the weather was changing and the days were shortening. She loved this time of year.

Even so the sun was still shining bright enough to warrant sunglasses, tinting her world view. Not enough that she didn't spot the cute antique store on the corner, mind you.

Essa generally didn't care for antiques. She didn't see the joy in having something old and useless. Even her house was as new as it came. She'd built it with her own two hands, designed it with her own pencils. It had taken a couple of times.

So it was quite a surprise when Essa entered the shop of her own volition and started to look around. A surprise, if one didn't know what was across the street. Through the wide windows it was easy to see Lionet Jewelers, and the people inside.

Perusing the glass menagerie on the display shelves she had a perfect view of the man working behind the jewelry counter. This was it. His shift would be over in an hour, and then her countdown would really begin. She only had three minutes between when he got off work and when he made contact with his handler, who was sitting a block away. They probably had no idea how many people wanted him dead. They probably had no idea who was on his tail. Unfortunate.

"Are you looking for something, miss?" one of the old fellows who worked there asked. She had seen three so far, and there was two other customers. Five people. Three men, one old lady, and redheaded girl about Essa's age.

She turned a polite smile to him, careful to leave her sunglasses on.

"No, but thank you. I'm just browsing."

"Alright, let us know if you change your mind," he smiled at her and left. Essa was glad for it. The less people who would recognize her the better.

She touched nothing but she did look at a tea pot and used her nails to turn a spoon over and looked at the knives on display. An hour passed and she left, pulling out a clipboard from her bag and crossing the street. She produced a pen and walked forwards, stopping everyone who didn't rush straight passed her.

Except for Balon Talon, who had the stupidest name she had ever heard in her life. And her name was Tempest Queen.

Him, she stopped directly in front of and spilled all of her papers over the ground and the air. She shrieked and grabbed his hand when it was hidden by the fluttering pages. Her nail pressed into his skin and held. Her other thumb came up, a centimeter above, and pushed in. She let go, gathered her papers and left.

She had already turned the corner by the time Balon Talon fell to the ground, dead. The shouts started up around her. Essa stepped into an alley she had mapped out beforehand. The blonde wig fell into a trash bin, along with the papers and the clip board. Essa slipped a flask out of her coat pocket, emptied the alcohol and lit the whole thing on fire.

Essa, now with red hair, left it burning and traded her sunglasses for winged ones. Her lipstick came off in a napkin she crumpled up and dropped in a trashcan on the street. Two blocks and she heard the sirens. And something else.

"Miss!" a voice from the shop came up behind her. She turned to see one of the men jogging towards her, holding a bag in his hand. She arched a brow but turned a friendly smile on him when he got close enough.

"Yes?" she kept her hands still. Her eyes on him. Betrayed no sign of nerves. She wasn't someone to get worried.

"You left this," he handed her the bag. Essa made sure she could remember his face before she accepted it and looked inside. There was a necklace, with a gold doubloon on it and a receipt. Essa had definitely not bought this.

"Thank you," she smiled and tucked it into her pocket anyways. The man nodded, smiled, and left. Essa turned and continued on her way.

Three blocks and a news van rolled past her.

Four blocks and she was at the pier, climbing into her floating house. It took her barely any time at all to set out off of the coast, and into the ocean. She had places to be, after all. Places to be, and people to see.

* * *

"Where did it go?" Anna muttered, pushing through her purse. Gum, manga, pencils, no, no, no! She groaned loudly and fell back onto her Naruto bed sheets.

She had found a necklace today in the antique store that she just had to have. It was beautiful, and it looked like it came straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean! Anna had love it, and it was gold. Coincidentally her last name.

She tossed an arm over her freckled cheeks and groaned louder. It had been so cool.

As soon as she saw it she knew she had to have it. Her fingers itched to run across the metal and it felt warm, practically pulsing in her grasp.

And now it was gone. Maybe she just left the bag at the store?

She sat up fast, sending red hair flying around her face. Her cellphone was in her hand in an instant. Not that she always had it on. She wasn't like other girls. She never had been. She would have rather only had a few friends than a bunch, and she liked boys but only because they were less dramatic than girls.

She was also mature for her age, no matter what her parents said. They just didn't understand her!

She googled the store and called. They answered on the third ring.

"Hello? I was in earlier and I think I left my bag behind. Has anyone seen it?" she asked as soon as they answered.

"Oh, no, sorry. Only one person left a bag behind today and we already got that back to her. I'm very sorry," the woman on the other side said dismissively.

Anna huffed. "Thanks anyways."

She hung up and fell back against her bed. What had happened to her necklace?!

Outside her bedroom window, thunder crashed and the lights went out.

"Perfect."

* * *

Tempest was a word she had known her whole life. It was used almost exclusively when she was in trouble. Which, she always was. Her earliest memory was of her mother, shrieking in fear as she jumped out of a tree house.

" _Tempest Leigh Queen! Don't ever scare me like that again!_ "

Now the word came back to her, but not the same way. Oh she was sure her mother would lose it if she saw what Essa was doing, the kind of situation she had found it in, but in this case tempest lacked its capital letter.

Though, given the size of this storm, maybe it should have kept it.

Essa cursed vibrantly when the boat pitched, flinging her out of her seat. She heard her book smash against the window in her bookcase. Pots and pans in the kitchen rattled and crashed. Anything that wasn't bolted down was flying in the air, Essa herself included. She crashed into the couch, spitting like a cat, and grabbed the coffee table so hard the wood creaked. Or she thought it was the coffee table. It sure would suck if it was the house.

The young woman rolled, changed her grip on the coffee table, and launched herself at the bar stood bolted down by the island. She wrapped her arms, and her legs around it and held on for dear life.

Eyes closed, she hissed prayers through gritted teeth. She didn't even know who they were too, she just wanted this godforsaken storm to end.

The sky was black, there was no light, only the roll of thunder and the sharp crackle of electricity in the air. The ocean surged beneath her, pitching _Mourning Glory_ this way and that. Essa held on with all she was worth.

Lightning struck, screaming through the air. For just an instant Essa could see out the window. A sailboat silhouetted against the black clouds. The sails were bound fast, giving it a skeletal appearance. There was someone on the deck, the only indicator she had for the size. The size was massive. She counted three sails before it vanished into the black once again.

Essa didn't have time to put much more thought into it before a wave carrying a chunk of wood flying through her windows. Water washed in after it, drenching her and her favorite sitting chair.

Essa officially hated storms.

* * *

When the weather finally cleared up Essa was waterlogged and exhausted. The sun was rising up in the east, painting the sky orange and violet.

Essa peeled herself out from under the island and went to check the damage.

The house itself seemed fine. When she checked the meters in the flybridge they responded the way they were supposed to. The engine started when she turned the key, the readings from all of the solar panels she had attached to the outside and the roof were what they should have been in the dusk, and the compass still pointed north.

Only when she knew she could move the boat did she go outside to check the damage.

For a horrible storm like this there was surprisingly little damage. The worse thing that had happened to her home was the shattered window, and the blood that had dripped down her arm from where she'd been cut by the broken glass.

She was also missing a lounge chair, and the slide was ripped halfway off the back. There was a tear in the carpet on the top deck, but that seemed to be the worst of it.

"I guess praying does something." Satisfied with the state of her vessel, Essa went back inside to dry off and start sweeping up the glass.

When she got back, feeling better in a floral romper with her red hair tied up in a knot, she was surprised to see that the ship she'd seen before had pulled up alongside her own.

She was right when she said it was huge. It looked like a pirate ship, to match the doubloon she'd gotten earlier that day. And, on top of that, the wind lifted a pirate flag. Black, with a skull and crossbones on it. Or, not crossbones. Cross _blades,_ complete with red hilts. The skull was marked with two red lines, separated and bordered with three black lines.

There was a man standing on the deck, looking down at her. She could just make out his blond hair, wild, and the dark green headband trying to hold it at bay.

"Hey!" he yelled down at her. "How's the ship?"

"Working fine," Essa yelled right back. "You pirates?"

The jolly roger did look familiar…

"Red Hair Pirates," he confirmed. Someone else came up next to him, a man with long black hair, tied back. Now that really sounded familiar.

"Badass," Essa flashed them the peace sign. Blondie laughed at her. "Got a bearing for Foosha village?" It was meant as a joke.

She wasn't expecting a red head to pop up next to him, with a straw hat perched atop his bright hair. Three scars stretched across his left eye. This was getting a little bit weird. A lot a bit weird.

"What'cha doing that way?" he asked. Essa shrugged, tapping the heel of her boot lightly on the carpet behind her. They seemed to be taking this seriously.

"I heard they have big animals on Dawn Island. I'd like a new coat," the lie was so easy, her tone so light. Essa had been born to the family Queen, they were killers and thieves. Lies were easy, and this one was barely a lie. It was meant to be a joke, it sounded like one, and the red haired man laughed at her.

"We're headed that way, just come along."

So she did.

It barely took them an hour to get there. To Fuusha Village, that is. The real deal. An actual, honest to god village. Either it was full of really dedicated cosplayers, all of them intent on playing a massive prank on a girl who hadn't touched One Piece manga in five year and had never even spoken to people with the resources for this about liking it, or the storm had knocked her senseless and she was hallucinating.

Only, this was way to consistent to be a hallucination. This wasn't how hallucinations worked. Nothing about it fit into the reality that her brain would conjure. So hallucination was out. And so was a prank.

Essa decided not to contemplate the third possibility too much until she had found someone to fix her window.

The third possibility. The one where reality had tipped on its head and this was for real.


	4. Blood and Seawater

**Blood and Seawater**

 ** _Minnie was a thief. She always had been, she always would be. She just never thought that those thefts would include children. Mom!OC, undecided pairing.  
_**

* * *

It wasn't something that she planned. Honest, it just sort of… happened. In fact, she wasn't totally sure how it came about that Minnie, whose height disagreed with her name, got a kid.

The day started the way it should have. She woke up with the sun, stretched out, and left her bed. She couldn't bring herself to get dressed before she had had coffee, or do anything until she'd had coffee, so she made her way out of her room, down the empty hallway of the _Silver Horizon_ into the kitchen.

She passed the breakfast nook so she could turn on the coffee machine before she entered the massive, meticulously organized pantry and pried open the wooden box that was meant to hold her coffee.

She scooped a spoonful of Caribou Caramel out of one of the dozens of bags into a filter, glanced at the little girl that was sleeping inside the box where more coffee should have been, and shut the lid quietly so she could go make her cup.

It was only after she had nearly scalded her tongue for the first sip that it occurred to her that there should not have been a little girl sleeping inside of her coffee box. In fact there shouldn't have been a little girl on the ship at all.

It was designed to hold a crew of professionals, like herself. Hitters, Grifters, Thieves and Black Kings. With enough rooms for two of each to fit comfortably it was usually the Base when she had a job going on. Now, it was devoid of life save Minnie and Flo, the Leonberger that was more snack dog than attack dog.

Or it should have been, until the little girl showed up.

Minnie took another sip of her coffee and leaned back in the cushioned bench of the nook. What was she even supposed to do with a kid? Drop her off at the next port, but that was a week and a half away, Wind providing.

She could kill her, she guessed, but the thought of hurting a little kid made her stomach churn. So that option was out.

Next port it was.

Minnie stayed where she was, barely moving when the door to the pantry opened slowly. The little ones head poked out, looking first left, then right. She had pretty blue eyes and a dark red dress, and she was holding a book that looked older than Grand.

The little one crept out slowly, her footsteps silent, much to Minnie's surprise. Most kids her age couldn't sneak if their life depended on it. Minnie notwithstanding, being Grand's granddaughter and all.

Minnie watched her creep into the kitchen, apparently not even noticing the woman sitting in the corner. Not that she could blame her. Minnie was very good at camouflage, and people tended to overlook things that didn't move. Like other people.

Finally, she said, "There's juice in the fridge."

The girl, naturally, jumped out of her skin.

She spun around, turning wide, frightened eyes on Minnie. She looked like a little blue eyed dear, caught by a hunter in the woods. Minnie finished off her cup and stood up, sending the little one scurrying back. Minnie held up her hands, the mug flipped over on the back of her hand, hanging from the handle.

"Easy, I'm not going to hurt you, even if you are a stowaway. I don't hurt kids," she promised. She offered her what she hoped was a kind smile. "I'm Minerva, who are you?"

There was a long beat before the girl slowly let her shoulders lax. Piercing blue eyes never left her own.

"Robin," she said, quietly.

"Robin," Minnie repeated. "Why don't you have breakfast with me, and you can tell me where you're going all on your own?"

"I-" Robin finally looked away, at the counters and the pantry. Her stomach growled loud enough to make Robin flush lightly. Minnie felt like she knew the girl from somewhere, but she had no idea where. The girl didn't move like a thief, she didn't act like a tiny assassin in training.

"You?" she prompted.

"I don't want to intrude," the girl finally finished.

Minnie felt her heart twinge. She finished her cup of coffee and leaned across the table to look better at little Robin.

"You are, but that's okay. Go on, take what you like," she encouraged. "I'm a little low on milk, so don't go hogging that."

"I won't!" Robin hurried to assure her. She reached for the fridge before she paused to look at Minnie again. Minnie propped her chin in her hand, doing nothing to stop her. What an interesting little stow away she had.

Maybe she would keep her.


	5. Away With Your Sons and Your Daughters

**Away With Your Sons and Your Daughters**

 _ **If one were to pay attention to the number of people dying, they might notice that abruptly, five years ago, the child mortality rate fell sharply. That was her fault. Eventual Luffy x OC**_

Al stepped atop the waves, light as the wind. She barely touched down but it was enough to cause ripples to spread across the uneven surface of the sea. She had to pick her way through the fire, towards the hunched figure of a man. He was bent over a tiny, broken child. The remnants of a little raft were already starting to float away, burning brightly.

Al knew well the sight of a mourning parent. The boy wasn't dead, not just yet. She should have just taken the boy and left. She really should have. Honestly, she knew that she wasn't technically supposed to be doing this, but no one was stopping her. Her parents certainly weren't.

She reached around the man's arm to touch the little boy. He was burned, badly, and his little heart was beating fast and faint. His head was hurt especially, knocked around and charred. There was pain in his mind. If she did this, he would have to forget what he had been before.

Al sighed and looked at the face of the man cradling the child. He held him tenderly, but his eyes were not for the child. They were aimed, filled with contempt and hatred, towards the man who had caused the explosion. Al had no love for people like them.

Al brushed her fingers through the boys blond hair. A charred hat floated by her feet.

Wings beat and she looked over to see her uncle standing nearby. He took one look at her face and sighed.

"This one too?" he crossed his arms over his chest, torch folding over until it almost touched the water. Black wings floated behind him, weightless. Despite his body language her uncle didn't look very angry at all, more amused than anything. He had been doing this since the beginning of time, but even still Al doubted he liked touching children.

"This one too," she confirmed, nodding firmly. The older shook his head, sending pale hair flying around his face in tiny rings.

"You're telling your dad," he warned.

"Step-Dad," she corrected mildly, "And it'll be fine. I'll do the paperwork."

"Have fun with that… you know if you do let this one go, you'll have to lock his memories up for a bit. His heads too hurt to take all of space used by memories."

"Ah, yeah," Al nodded, scratching her cheek. "I'm sure it'll be fine. This guy is probably his dad anyhow. He'll get him home."

"You sure are confident that everything will work itself out," Thanatos, the embodiment of death itself, laughed at her. It didn't sound like bones clattering or the last, desperate gasp from a dying man. It sounded like he snorted halfway through every laugh. Aleka, the soon-to-be-official Guide of Dead Children, grinned brightly at him.

"That's because it will!"

Then, she turned to the child, touched his head, and released him from his schedule. The boy choked abruptly, and started to wail. The man holding him looked down, eyes wide.

"Doctor!" he roared abruptly. "Someone get me a doctor!"

Aleka stepped out of his way as he threw himself forwards, towards the shore. Thanatos stepped up beside her. He couldn't touch her, not yet. Not until she was officially dead.

"You know, things haven't been this interesting in a long time. I'm looking forward to killing you."

Aleka shot him a sidelong glance, but she was smiling.

"If you were anyone else, I would be offended."

Thanatos just shook his head and together they turned from the wreckage of the ship and the burning of the Grey Terminal. Only one person was meant to die that day, and now, no one would. Aleka looked up at the stars above, counting the constellations that waved back at her.

She wondered what Sabo's future, unbound by predetermined death, would be like.

Maybe she would have to check up on him.


	6. Slaves of Legacy

**Slaves of Legacy**

 **Just a fun little insert that I thought of after the original story! Time Travel, Ace x OC  
**

* * *

Ace wasn't moving, he was just staring at the man with the mustache. Sylph couldn't say she blamed him. They were surrounded, and normally he would be the first one to throw a punch, with Sylph trying not to get in his way. This time, however, with all the swords pointed at them, he wasn't doing anything.

So Sylph took it upon herself to step forwards, impaling herself harmlessly on the knives that a teenager with blue hair and an unmistakable nose had been holding at her, and promptly poked the big red spot in the middle of his face.

"Boop."

As expected, he exploded.

"Who's got a big red nose!?" he screamed in her face, uncaring for the face that darkness flickered harmlessly around his fingers when he tried to stab her again.

"You do, Buggy!" it was his own crew who called the jeer, the tension abruptly broken by laughter. He started turning red, but before he could yell his mouth was smooshed against her boobs.

"Don't be mean!" Sylph scolded the strangers, hugging Buggy to her chest. "He's got a perfectly fine nose! Perfect for eskimo kisses!"

She pushed him back, holding him by the shoulders, and brushed their noses together lightly. He turned bright, bright red, and his head popped right off his shoulders. The rest of his body fell to pieces in her arms, tumbling into a heap at the ground.

Sylph stared down at the pile, then looked at the unmistakable face of Captain Gol D. Roger.

"Okay, I wasn't expecting that, but it is for real the cutest reaction a boy has ever had to me, like, ever. And I'm totally doing it again. Just, FYI."

"FYI?" the red head who'd been standing by Buggy, Shanks no doubt, cocked his head to the side. He was a cute kid too.

"For your information," she elaborated. "So uh, this is weird," she waved her hand in an all encompassing gesture. Ace still hadn't moved. This was starting to freak her out.

"Why did you fall out of the sky?" Shanks asked. "Are you from a sky island?"

"Me? No, I'm from Marjoires. Ace," she hooked her thumb at her companion, "Is from Barterilla. We're pirates. We weren't in the sky a second ago. We sailed into a hole."

"Into a hole?" Shanks repeated.

"Into a hole. It looked like an adventure," she shrugged, careless. "I guess it dumped us here. Still and adventure, I guess."

Gol D. Roger abruptly laughed. "Pirates! That's what we are! Whose crew are you on?"

Sylph reached over and grabbed Ace by the shoulder, turning him around. He was hot under her hands, almost enough to burn her. His eyes never left Roger even when she turned him to show off the tattoo on his back.

"Oyaji's our captain. You don't happen to know where he is, do you? We're sorta lost."

It was, of course, at this point that Ace finally caught up with what was going on. Sylph didn't know how she didn't go into shock. She blamed it on the whole dimension hopping reincarnation bit preparing her for all sorts of BS hijinks.

Sylph shrieked and flung herself at Ace, trying to grab him when he flung himself violently at the _King of Pirates_ , totally on fire. She missed, of course, and Ace ended up with his arm caught effortlessly and twisted behind his back while he spat insults and obscenities at Roger.

Sylph whined and rubbed her cheeks, squishing her lips to keep from shouting. Where was Marco when she needed him?

"Sorry," she addressed the man she figured was Silvers Rayleigh. "He's got a chip on his shoulder."

"I can see that," he said dryly. Sylph went over to where Ace was spitting insults at Roger, struggling in his grip. She touched his cheek lightly. His face snapped towards her. She was surprised he hadn't tried to bite her, with the look on his face.

"Ace, come on, chill. We need to get back to Oyaji. Please stop trying to kill him," she requested, mouth twitching. She wasn't that worried. Roger was a D. They were pretty safe with him.

"He's Gol D. Roger!" he shouted right at her. Sylph cringed and wiped off her face. Gross.

"And I'm Sylphana, and your Portgas D. Ace. These aren't relevant. Come on, he's not the one who hurt you. It's not his fault people are shitty. And it doesn't even matter anymore, because you're Oyaji's son and everyone else can go fuck themselves."

"Portgas? Do you know Rouge?" Roger turned to peer down at both of them, his grip on Ace's arm loosening enough that the boy escaped. He slid an arm around Sylph's middle and pulled her back. She went without a fuss. It was cute when he got all protective.

"She's my mother!" he snapped.

Roger didn't react like a normal person. He actually looked delighted while everyone else looked bewildered.

"Rouge has a son! Say," he leaned in, right next to Ace's face. "Are you my kid to?"

"My only father is Whitebeard!" he shouted, throwing himself at the man again. Sylph gave up trying to keep the peace. She ran a hand through her long hair, sighing.

"Yeah. We're also from twenty three years in the future. Hi," she waved, because why not? This was the new world. There was no way they hadn't seen something weirder than a couple of time travellers. And besides that, if anyone had a way to get back to where they came, it was Gold . Roger.

Right?


	7. Still Standing 2

**btw, nothing is really in order here. Sorry!**

 **Still Standing**

* * *

Marco the Phoenix wasn't a person who snooped into another's private life. Honestly, when his eyes swept across the desk set up in Iona's room, personal, her being one of the only women who wasn't a nurse on board the _Moby Dick_ , he didn't intent to snoop. It was just that a paragraph caught his eye. Just a few words.

 _Bird… fire… freedom._

Marco tilted his head, curiosity caught. He was far from a man without vices, being a pirate and all, so he did what any man with vice's would do if put in the same position.

He looked down.

He didn't read all of it, just the paragraph that caught his attention. He wasn't a total snoop.

 _I saw the most beautiful bird ever last night Mama! I was on the deck, watching the stars, and it flew right by the boat. It was so pretty, it was blue and yellow and huge! I don't think anyone else saw it. Tam was asleep in the crows nest, and so was Jackie, and Slick was facing the wrong way. If they did see it that didn't think it was as cool as I did, which is friggin nuts! I swear, Mama, this thing was on fire! I don't think I've ever seen anything so beautiful in all my life. Looking at it felt like looking at freedom itself. It was only there for a second before it flew off around the back of the ship, but it felt like that second lasted forever. Maybe I'm going crazy, but I felt like I_ _knew_ _this bird. I don't know if I should tell anyone else about it, it kinda feels like I shouldn't. Like it's something special. I don't know, Mama. Something sacred. Maybe I'm just selfish and looking for something just mine on this ship._

 _I wonder if it's from the island we're resupplying at. Do you know what kind of birds are in the New World? Can you see them all from where you are?_

He stopped there. That part felt a little too private, and his stomach turned having invaded on something _that_ personal. A letter to her mother was something he shouldn't be looking at at all, even if the content held within pertained to him. It looked like Iona didn't know that it was him though.

Marco smiled a bit to himself. She thought he was beautiful? He knew people thought his phoenix form was unusual, unique, and a few who thought it was downright unnatural. He certainly liked the idea that Iona liked it.

Speak of the devil, the door opened and Iona came in, carrying a box. She caught sight of him and smiled widely.

"Marco!" She dropped the crate on the bed and spun to him. If she was offended he came into her room without asking, she didn't show it. "What can I do for you, Mr. Commander?"

Marco's mouth twitched higher. "Just Marco to you. I'm handing out allowances."

Iona looked surprised. "I get an allowance?"

"Mhmm. Everyone does. How much depends on seniority and rank. Yours isn't much, yoi."

"I didn't even know I got one! I thought it was just like a room and board deal, so anything is awesome!" she turned a bright, chipped grin on him. Had she so much faith in her that it didn't occur to the young woman that he, a man, might be up to more unsavory things in her bedroom? He considered being flattered.

He settled for handing her over a small envelope full of Beri. "You also get a pick of the treasure, next time we get some. You'll be the last person," he warned. Her smile didn't dim at all. If anything it got bigger.

"Sweet! Thank you, Marco!"

Marco nodded at her, offering a smile in turn. An idea spring to mind and his smile changed, just a little.

"No problem, yoi," he waved at her and made his exit. He had things to do. Plans to see through.

Schedule's to change.

* * *

"Aw man, nightwatch? Guess they're putting your through your paces, eh kid?" Taz elbowed her harmlessly in the ribs, grinning gap-toothed at her. Taz was two years younger than her, at least, but he had been a pirate for a good ten of those years. He had a hundred stories, but Iona didn't need to know them anymore. She could have her own now.

"It's fine. I like the stars," Iona shoved him. He barely rocked under her push and snickered at her poor attempt.

"Can you see all the way to the stars?" he asked, propping his elbow on her shoulder. Iona didn't push him away. She liked physical contact.

"No," she shook her head. "I tried once, but I can only see more. They don't get much closer or anything."

"There's more stars?" Taz perked up.

Iona flashed him a grin and ducked away from his arm. "I'll show you them sometime! I gotta go now though, buh-bye!"

Taz's laughter followed her retreating form as she left the schedule posting, humming to herself. Her stomach flipped around and her brain filled with thoughts of fiery feathers in the dark night skies.

Iona didn't stop until she was in her room, her cheeks hurting from smiling so much. She shut the door and leaned against her, wrapping her arms around her stomach. It was fluttering and flipping with excitement. Just the prospect of seeing the bird again was enough to get her bouncing on her toes.

She didn't sleep before her shift.

She was yawning by the time she launched herself up at the crows nest. She was still getting the hang of scaling the masts like a monkey, the way her newfound brothers did with enviable ease. One day, she promised herself, that would be her.

For the time being she just settled herself in the mast and prayed, softly under her breath. She prayed to the stars to see the bird again. She wanted to, so desperately, just to catch a glimpse of it. The memory of its first wheeling pass by the ship was seared into her mind and she didn't think she would be able to forget about it if she could.

Iona took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. The sun started to set. The stars started to shine. Her hopes started to lift.

Iona stood in the crows nest, stretching her senses as far as she could without using her powers. She could only augment herself for a half an hour at a time, and other people a mere ten minutes.

She didn't know how long she stood there, trying to hear for the strong beat of massive wings or spot a flicker of beautiful blue. The sun was gone and stars offered her their light in its stead. There was no moon, the night was dark. Waves beat softly against the sides of the _Moby Dick_ , rocking the ship gently. Her dark waves rolled restlessly in the night, but there was no sign of a storm. The wind only blew softly through her hair, carrying with it the smell of seawater and whatever midnight snack Thatch had heating up in the kitchens.

Iona sighed softly and sunk down, into the basket. If she focused she could hear William and Tam snoring softly in the other two. The one farthest forwards and the tallest one in the middle. Iona was still working on the names for them.

With every swell of the sea they tilted and turned, so far up even the smallest movement would send them lurching. She knew most people got seasick from being up there too long, but so far Iona seemed to be doing just fine. Maybe she was blessed.

Maybe she was meant to be a pirate.

The woman snorted at the thought. She was pirate because she was useful to the crew, because Pops pitied her, and because she wanted to see the world. People who were born to be pirates set sail when they were children, stowed away in barrels, or at least had practice causing trouble.

Iona had none of that.

She shook her head. This always happened, in the dead of night, when her learning was done and her mind was free to wander. When she was left too long to think alone, when there was none of her new 'family' around to distract her.

That was when the doubts started to creep in. When the tears threatened to blur away the sights that she never wanted to forget. When her mind tricked her heart into clawing its way into her throat.

It had happened before, on Marina Island. When night fell and the salon closed and her mother lay sleeping in the other room Iona used to listen to her and wallow in the fear that one night the soft, uneven breaths would stop.

The wind changed abruptly, throwing the ship sideways. Starboard.

Iona scrambled to grab the edge of the basket, trying to regain her flow.

Tam and William didn't so much as stir.

She clutched at the edge of the basket, facing the wind. Her eyes glowed, trying to see if any of the stars were blocked by clouds.

She didn't see anything. No dark clouds rolling in, no stars winking out of sight. No waves raising high in the air. She sighed in relief.

The wind blew in behind her, a short burst that ruffled her hair fur just a second. Her shadow changed behind her. Iona spun around so fast she almost fell over and out of the nest.

There, behind her, was the bird.

She was pretty sure she stopped breathing entirely. The creature swooped low, close to the water. The deep blue waves were illuminated beneath its wings, bright flue glowing and shining across the white tips of the waves.

Within the pale blue fire that wrapped around the creature's body yellow flickered through, shining. A beacon in the darkness. It's long neck stretched out, sharp beak pointing to the North Star.

Iona's heart beat hard in her chest. She couldn't bring herself to blink, couldn't bring herself to push power to her eyes. She didn't dare, in case the bird vanished in the second it took.

The creature wheeled around the back of the boat (the stern, her mind provided) and circled around again. Iona turned with it, her hands shaking on the edge of the basket that kept her from falling out. Her breath was absolutely gone, stolen by the raw beauty of the sight before her.

It circled the ship twice more, until Iona thought she was going to get dizzy, and vanished behind the sails. It was gone.

Iona collapsed on her knees, smiling so wide it hurt. She had gotten her wish.

* * *

People didn't normally have a skip in their step after a night in the crows nest. Most of them were stumbling around, looking drunk and wishing they were.

Iona, was quite the opposite.

Marco was amused to see her practically skipping around the boat, smiling massively.

"Have a good night?" Marco couldn't help asking. He'd been careful not to turn his front to her last night. He was having fun. He would keep it up a little longer, maybe two more nights. He didn't want to ruin her special bird too fast.

Iona turned bright eyes upon him. She caught his hands, glowing from something that certainly wasn't her powers.

"It was great! Can I do it again tonight?" she asked. Marco quirked a brow.

"Most people ask for a couple of nights off after they've been in the crows nest. You don't have to."

"I want to," she said quickly, squeezing his hands. She had a penchant for touching other people. Brushing shoulders, touching someone's back when she went behind them, grabbing hands, running her fingers through people hair. Marco had never met someone with that particular habit before.

"Ask Tam to switch with you," he advised. He knew that Tam would jump on the opportunity. He'd been trying to get in with one of Pop's nurses for a while now. He would be glad to have a night off.

"I will! Thank you, Marco," she awarded him a smile that warmed his heart. She was so amazed by things that everyone else saw as mundane. She saw things in a light different from the rest of them. It was refreshing. Marco was glad that they had her with them.

* * *

Iona waited, long into the night. She didn't lose hope this time. She didn't worry that she wouldn't see her bird again. Even if she didn't, she had two memories of it's beauty, and that was almost enough. Almost. It was enough to make her happy, but Iona found that she was greedy. She wanted more.

She got it.

She didn't know what time it was when the light changed and the wing beat around her. She didn't care. All she cared about was the fact that the bird had come back. She watched it turn around the ship, circling languidly around the boat.

Iona flung herself against the edge of the basket to look down, eyes wide, when the bird flew between the sails, weaving between the three before it angled itself south and disappeared again.

Three times. Three times should have been enough.

It wasn't even close.

* * *

Iona traded with Tam again. He was all too happy to hop off with Maggie, eat her oatmeal cookies, and eat a little something more.

That boy was not subtle with his affections. Nor did he know the meaning of tmi.

Iona shook her head fondly. She shouldn't be talking. She was getting something out of this, after all.

The woman leaned back, waiting patiently this time. Her bird would show up again, she was sure of it. This might be the last time, seeing as they were leaving the island tomorrow. She wished she had a camera, but she felt that trying to capture its image would somehow be an insult. A disservice to something so amazing.

It appeared from the darkness.

Iona watched it circle the ship thrice before it wove between the masts, expertly avoiding the nets. It was beautiful, shining in the night. Then, it turned upwards and sailed high, until she had to pull back to avoid getting a beak in the face. Wings beat hard around her, threatening to brush her arms with bright blue flames. Wing tore at her hair, pulled at her clothes and threatened to blind her. The only thing that kept her eyes open was her own stubbornness and unwillingness to let this moment go to waste.

The bird towered above her, circled surrounded its dropping eyes. It peered down its long beak at her, lowered its head to nose at her hair. Iona smiled. She did the exact same thing to people plenty often.

"Hello," her voice was soft, barely audible. She didn't want to scare the creature away. Her eyes trailed across its long, arching neck across strong shoulders, down to a chest painted blue with a familiar mark. A mark that now adorned her wrist.

"You beautiful creature, you're one of us," she realized. Slowly, she started to smile. She might see the bird more often.

It stepped down, a leg emerging from the fire. Iona sucked in a sharp breath. Out from the flames emerged Marco, sleepy eyes and half smug smile. Familiar, right there.

Marco was her bird.

"Beautiful, am I?" his voice was light, teasing. Iona took in a slow breath, her mind scrambling to catch up with this new information. Slowly, she reached up, carding her fingers through his pale hair. It wasn't quite short, it wasn't quite long. It was so soft. Were his fiery feathers this soft? Or were they burning hot? She could only seem to voice one word, with all these questions in her mind.

"Very."


	8. Blood and Seawater: Prison Break

**Blood and Seawater, Prison Break**

* * *

"But we have to get Ace! We can't just sit here!" Luffy screamed in the face of the first Commander. Minnie touched his shoulder.

"Luffy, enough," her voice was soft, but steel. Wide, frightened black eyes spun to her. Luffy was terrified, she realized, of the thought of losing another brother.

"But they're just sitting here while Ace is in Impel Down and-"

"Luffy," she touched his cheek, and the boy fell silent. His mouth was quivering. "They want to save him just as much as you. They are his family, same as us. Whitebeard, I'm sure, had already called the bannermen. He's like me, you know," she glanced at the massive captain, "He would never let anything happen to his children."

There was the smallest inclination from Newgate.

"Then why aren't we sailing there now?" Luffy's voice finally quieted.

"It doesn't matter. None of you need to go there, or Marineford. Ace will be fine. I'm going to fetch him now," she promised, cupping his cheek. Luffy frowned at her. "You just stay here and get to know Ace's other other family, alright? And I will bring Winter to Impel Down."

"You can't fight everyone in Impel Down," he argued, but Minnie had spent years learning how to calm her boys. She was good at it.

"I'm not going to fight anyone," she said. Her smile faded, and she let go of her youngest son.

"I'm going to kill them."

* * *

Ace hadn't been expecting visitors. He didn't' even think visitors were allowed. Not that that would stop his Mom.

The body of the guard hit the bars of his cell, wide eyes staring right at him. Blue, blue as the sky, staring at him. Accusing him of some crime he hadn't committed. Ace looked away and up.

Minerva stood behind him, her mouth straight, her eyes trained on the man in the cage. She slipped the keys into the lock and the door swung open. She glanced, only briefly, at Jinbe before she crossed the room to Ace. Ace looked up when she knelt in front of him. Her eyes, ice a moment before, softened as soon as she was looking at him.

"Darling," she produced a cloth from somewhere and wiped off his face. Her fingers, covered in blood, were gentle. Ace could only imagine the sight he looked to his Mom, beaten, bruised, and covered in his own blood.

"What are you doing here?" he had to ask, even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

"I came to get you before Luffy did something foolish," she said simply. She produced another key and undid the chains on his ankles, then his wrists. He fell against her, arms wrapped around the woman as the power that had been choked inside of him was finally allowed to flow back into his body. He felt whole again for the first time in far too long.

":You shouldn't have come. You could have been hurt." He hugged her tightly, his eyes stinging like he'd opened them under water. He swallowed something thick in his throat.

Minnie rubbed his back gently.

"You're the one who's hurt here, darling. Now come on. You father is waiting for us, and so are your brothers and sisters."

He pulled back to look at her. She was right. While he was covered in hurts the only blood on his Mom wasn't hers.

"We can't leave Jinbe," he gestured to the fishman. Minnie glanced over and sighed.

"You would say that. You and Luffy are the same, you know?" She shook her head fondly. "Well most of the guards are already dead," she inclined her head to the still body on the floor. "So we might as well let everyone else out too. It won't hurt anything at this rate."

Ace nodded and took the keys from her before he ran to unlock his cellmate. He didn't know how Minnie had done all this, honestly. He'd never seen his Mom kill anyone before at all.

 _Those who have power are obligated to use it to help those who don't. Because you can kill, is the exact reason that you shouldn't._

He looked at her, but she didn't seem to notice. She was tossing a knife around in her hands. Sea stone. For devil fruit users. There was a gun on her belt that she almost never carried, and a spray bottle too. He was afraid to know what it was for.

"Are you ready?"

Ace nodded. He was ready to leave. Still, he couldn't help wondering what was going to happen now that his Mom was more than a thief.

Now that she was a killer.


	9. Lost Kings

" _The seven kings of the Stone have died. I was sent to this world find the new ones. To protect them." The only problem is, she had no idea where to find them. Hell, she didn't even know their names._

 **Just FYI, this is a total K project rip off.**

* * *

Perhaps it was rude for her to run from the boys, but she couldn't help it.

The little one was nice, he was friendly, he didn't deserve her taking one look at him and shoving past. The biggest one glared at her and she couldn't handle that right then. She couldn't stand other people, she needed a way out.

She ran.

Into the woods, heedless of the shout that echoed behind her. Uncaring of the warning she had heard for ten years about the dangers of the monsters that lived there. She hoped she ran into them. She hoped she never saw civilization again.

Branches scratched her arms and tore at her cheeks, slicing open the soft skin. Her eyes stung but she ran on, until she couldn't run any longer. The ground vanished from under her feet and she went tumbling down the incline, towards the river down bellow.

She shouted, scrabbling for purchase on the rocks and got her hands cut open for her troubles. A bramble bush caught her, tearing apart her dress and her skin. She lay in the thornes for a few minutes, trying to breath. Some of the energy that had been building up in her left, but not enough. Not nearly enough.

It still clawed at her throat, trying to tear its way out of her mouth.

She grit her teeth and climbed out, tears in her eyes and blood on her skin.

The pressure was still there, pouding inside her skull and in her heart. It had been building for a decade and she couldn't take it anymore. That was why she ran from the village, that was why she ran from the boys she stumbled across in the woods.

 _Did you forget what I taught you?_

She flinched away from the phantom's soft voice. She couldn't look at his sad, crimson eyes. She couldn't face him.

She turned away, right into the teeth of a bear.

It growled, low, staring her in the eyes. Sharp teeth, each one longer than her fingers, were bared, threatening her tiny throat.

She lunged.

"Fuck off!" the words were screamed so loud it made her throat sore as she repeated them, over and over, screaming into the air as she tore through the tiger. Claws bit into her shoulder but she wrenched them out, the arm snapping back wrong. The great beast caved beneath her tiny fists, glowing soft gold in the shadows of the trees.

She only stopped when it wasn't struggling anymore.

The girl stumbled away from the bloody mess that had once been an apex predator. She couldn't tell where her blood ended and the bears began. Her chest heaved and her shoulders slumped but her hands weren't shaking.

A twig snapped to her left. Her head snapped sideways to see the three little boys she'd run from earlier standing there, staring at her.

She sniffed and rubbed the tears out of her eyes. When had she started crying?

"What're you looking at?" she bared her teeth at him, sure she could taste blood.

The littlest one, a tiny scrap with black hair stuffed under a straw hat of all things, was staring at her with utmost awe. Which really only confused the girl. She was totally covered in blood with a smushed tiger at her feet, and she knew very well what her eyes looked like. It should have been a demonic image.

So why was the little one smiling so wide.

"That was so cool!" he shouted. He flung himself at her but the tallest of the trio, the one with the freckles, grabbed him around his middle and hauled him back.

"I guess," she was unconvinced. It was violent and bloody. Not cool.

"How'd you do that?" the awe was absent from the freckled boy. In its place was suspicion.

She shrugged.

"I'm golden," she said, like it was obvious. Then added, "And I was burning. Goodbye."

She turned and walked away, leaving the boy gawking at her back.

* * *

The heart rate monitor was quiet in the background, a reminder of the life that he still clung to. He was old and grey and they had known it was coming for some time.

That didn't make the pain in her heart lessen.

Across the bed from her stood his oldest friend, his once long silver hair now much shorter. Each other them, his closest confidant and his only granddaughter, held a hand. They were old, but the strength still in them was there. Callouses, from many years of work and fighting rubbed against her finger tips, equally hard.

She could not recall a time in her life when she had had soft hands.

Even on his deathbed her grandfather held a sort of elegance, an unbending pride that shone through even now. The sickness had ravaged away some of his muscle and all of his fat but the girl would put good money on him still being able to cut down anyone who stood in his way.

He was a tough old man, he had fought through a war that ravaged the whole planet and worked afterwards to unite the country and bring it into an era of technological advancement and peace. They stood amidst the crowning jewel of his accomplishments. The hospital towered over every structure in the city, a hundred stories high if not more. He had worked to build it with his own hands and now here he was.

Dying in it.

"Leave us," he commanded, abruptly. She thought he was talking to her, but no, it was Adolf, with his silver hair and his silver eyes, smiled kindly at her and left the room. His cheeks were wet.

"Grandfather," she said softly. He managed to sit up. She would have offered to help but she knew he wouldn't accept. Prideful and stubborn and utterly devoted to his people.

"Don't start that now, Lan," he warned, turning his eyes on her. Gold, sharp as an eagles. Stars glittered fiercely in them. "I don't need you to be the kind and caring granddaughter you aren't."

She snorted. "You'd rather I be cold and rude?" she challenged. Under any other circumstances she would have turned a smile on him. Now, she couldn't seem to manage it.

"If that will make you stronger, then yes," he reached around his bedside and picked up his sword, a long, beautiful thing, from the otherside. "I need you to be stronger for this. Stronger than you were when you were my Golden Child, stronger than you were when you fought for the Lion King," he ignored her flinch. "I am dying now. All the Kings are dying. The Slate won't stay here anymore and there's noone where it's going that knows a damn thing about it."

"Grandfather," she said again, with more force this time. She did not like where this was going. He managed to use one hand to unsheathe the sword. The black casing clattered to the hospital floor. Cold steel glinted in the overhead light. Outside the window the sky train rushed passed, filled with people on their way.

"You need to find the new Kings, Lan. Find them, and protect them."

There was a flash and she fell to the ground, her throat cut open. It was fast. She didn't fight against it.

Death came for her, and it was cold. So cold, so horribly, horribly cold. She fell into it, a frozen lake that washed over her and dragged her and her cold, broken heart down with it. The undercurrent was inescapable. Blood rushed into her mouth, filling it and spilling past. Her neck didn't hurt, it just felt cold.

A man stood in front of her, in that cold, dark place. And a woman. And a boy, and a girl, and a baby. They were all the same person, a million people, a billion faces all layered on top of each other. They all smiled at her, with eyes that rippled through color.

It stopped, abruptly, on her own face. Her eyes were black as pitch, the whites swallowed by darkness. She raised a hand, slowly. The other her did the same. Their fingertips brushed, softly. Those were not her hands. Her hands were calloused and hard. These were soft as velvet.

The other her cracked a wider grin, showing teeth, and the world shattered around her. The darkness gave way and she plummeted into light.

She sucked in a sharp breath but didn't move out of her sheets. She didn't sit up, she didn't scream. She just looked up at the window in her bedroom. She wrapped the blankets around her and closed her eyes again.

Still, she was cold.

* * *

"Are you feeling better this morning, Kari?" Makino asked kindly.

Katja Kari, who was in fact Kokujoji Kaida and found her name rediculous in both lives, shrugged. She looked up at the kind woman through her long lashes and shoved food into her mouth so she wouldn't have to answer. Half the town was sure she had gone crazy last week when she had disappeared for two days and come back covered in blood and gore. The other half thought she had always been crazy.

Kari didn't talk to people a lot. In fact she could count on one hand the number of times she had willingly started a conversation with another human being since her death. Most folk figured she was mute.

Eddie Murphy, the old man who lived down the street, said that her birthmark cursed her to be a mute. The jagged line that sliced across her throat was nothing more than a reminder of all that she had lost.

People, no matter where you went, were stupid. Kari wanted nothing to do with them, but she needed them if she was to fulfill her mission. She couldn't find the Kings and protect them if she didn't figure out where they were, and she couldn't do that without asking people if they knew crazy strong folks with magic powers.

As small as she was now, she couldn't protect them even if she did find them, though, so talking was a moot point.

Makino handed her a glass of juice without needing to be asked, and Kari mumbled what sounded like a 'thanks'.

Makino was a kind woman. She didn't ask Kari to pay when she ate, not that she could have if she tried, and she didn't pressure her to tell her why she had abruptly run into the woods and destroyed not only her own perfect skin but also a massive bear and quite a few trees.

She also didn't look at Kari like she was going to snap and stab her with a fork.

Kari could appreciate that.

She even said a farewell before she hopped down from the stool and walked out of the bar, into the street outside. It wasn't really busy, but there were enough people that she could disappear in the tide of movement.

How she longed for the vast anonymity of a city of a million people.

She slipped neatly between the legs of the grown up until she could go running into the woods, out of sight and out of mind.

* * *

Luffy squinted at her, leaning in close to her face.

Kari blinked at him. He was always weird, but this was pushing it. He was being _quiet_ , and that was worrying.

She had just opened her mouth to ask what was wrong when he leaned in and closed the distance between his mouth and her nose.

"Um," she told his chin.

He pulled back to award her with a sunny smile.

"What was that?"

"I saw the grown ups do it in town!" Luffy proclaimed. "Dadan says that that's what a boy does when he likes a girl. He kisses her!"

That was probably the cutest thing she had ever heard. Kari's eyes softened and for the first time in a decade she smiled for real. Her tiny, broken heart warmed and she pulled Luffy into her arms, hugging him tight.

He laughed, delighted, and flung his rubber arms around her small body.

They stayed like that for a while, just Kari soaking up the warmth of Luffy's hug and the knowledge that she was cared for. They didn't even pull away when there was a loud exclamation from the door of the 'super secret fort'.

Kari looked over Luffy's shoulder to see the other two had come to stand in the doorway. They're staring at her, Ace with his brows drawn tight and a scowl on his face, pulling his mouth down. Sabo's expression is bewildered, with an underline of worry to his stretched smile.

They don't jump apart, her and Luffy. She knows its innocent and Luffy is too innocent to think to leave her arms. Even if he wasn't he was touch starved as fuck and probably wouldn't let go anyhow.

"What are you doing?" Ace asks. More like demands. His arms cross, his fists are tight. It's cute, with his freckled face all scrunched up. He was probably jealous that he wasn't the one getting the hug.

Ace was funny like that. He was tough, and would reject any offering of affection, but Kari had seen the signs. When he did something flashy in his little fights with Sabo and Luffy he would look over at her for approval. When he found a piece of metal that looked cool he cleaned the crap off of it and gave her shiny gifts from the dump, never meeting her eyes.

He was cute, in an angry little kid way.

"Hugging," she said, shrugging.

"But you never hug," Sabo said. Which was true. But Luffy had done something special today.

"It's because I kissed her," Luffy said, quite proud. Kari watches Ace's face change color and he draws himself up, red.

"You what?!" he yelled. All the birds in the tree took flight and Kari cringed.

"On the nose," she added, like that will placate him.

Sabo frowned and, in a certainty only a child can possess, said "You're only supposed to kiss girls you're gonna marry when you grow up."

Kari doesn't quite know what she expects to hear, but it sure as shit isn't the haughty sniff that comes from the boy who had tightened his arms around her when his brothers started yelling at him.

"Then I'll marry her when I'm all big!"

"...excuse me?" she did not agree with this.

"You can't marry her!" Ace was still yelling, his face getting so red it was hard to find his freckles anymore.

"Why not?" Luffy shot back, pouting at Ace over his shoulder. The older child sputters.

"Because I didn't say yes?" Kari offered.

"Because- because you're too little to marry her! She'd never marry a squirt like you! You're way to weak!" Ace lunged at them then, grabbing Luffy by one arm and trying to yank him away. Luffy wrapped the other one around her like the snake in the jungle book, threatening to break her ribs. She gasps for breath.

"I'll get stronger and then she'll marry me!"

"No, I'll be the strongest person ever and I'll marry her!"

And now she knew how Olive Oyl felt in every Popeye cartoon ever.

"Hey!" Sabo must have felt left out, "Who says I can't marry her!"

"I do!" Luffy and Ace chroused before glaring at each other.

"I'm the only one who kissed her!" Luffy snapped, tearing his arm free of Ace's grip at last.

Kari struggled to pry Luffy's other arm off of her throat. She could finally breathe against when she found herself in an ASL sandwich. Ace kissed her right cheek, Sabo kissed her left, and Luffy made made her a burrito when he kissed her nose.

Deep in her chest her heart started flum-flumpin' away. Her pale eyes got wide. It wasn't the small fluttering that proved she lived. It wasn't the pounding ache that gripped her chest with the loss of her King.

It was beating, beating blood and life and for the first time in fifteen years she felt like she was actually alive.

"Luffy! She's crying! What did you do?!"

* * *

"Take a walk with me!"

It wasn't so much a question as a demand that he yelled at her face. Still, the girl who had once been Kaida stop spinning her baton around long enough to tuck it under her arm and trail after him. She fell into step right after him.

It only took half a minute before she noticed that something was up. Ace was never relaxed, not really, but he usually wasn't this tense. Especially in the woods, in his domain he moved with confidence. This time there was something different.

Kari stepped up, closer, letting their arms brush.

"You okay?" she asked, surprising herself with her actual concern.

 _You always had a penchant for bastards._

Her eyes flickered to the phantom, and his half smile. She could almost meet his eyes these days. He turned from her, the chain in his pocket clinking.

She looked back at Ace. He didn't look back at her.

"This way," he grumbled, climbing over a log. Kari hopped over it with easy grace that a ten year old shouldn't have had. But, she was cheating, so that didn't count.

They ended up on a cliff, looking out over the sea. Kari had seen the ocean before, and this sight wasn't breathtaking as it should have been. It was beautiful, of course. The sea was sapphire, the sky was burning and the sun drowned in the distance. But, she had more on her mind than the scenery.

A glance at Ace and she knew she wasn't the only one. Ace sat down on the tall grass, drawing his knees in his arms. Kari sat cross legged far enough that they didn't touch, but close enough she could grab him if he did something stupid. It had been too dark to see before, but now she could notice the puffy redness lining his eyes.

"Ace?" she said his name, softly. He closed his dark eyes off from the world.

"What if- What would you think if, if Gold Roger had a son?" he asked, out of the blue. Kari's brows furrowed. That was a weird question. She had the brief thought of 'he's an orphan who wants a famous father', before her phantom snorted.

 _You're smarter than that, Golden Girl._

"Don't -" _Call me that._ "Know why you're asking stuff like that, Ace."

"Just answer the question!" his little hands curled into fists.

Kari sighed. She thought, though she only needed long enough to formulate the sentence.

"I would feel sad for him, I guess," she shrugged. When Ace's head snapped her way she went on. "His dad would be dead, and more than that, people are mean. They would never let him forget that Gol D. Roger was a pirate, that the world hated him, even if the kid had nothing to do with that. People are too stupid to understand that it's our own acts the define us. Not the sins or the saints that make up our heritage."

After all, a King could be born in the slums or silver sheets, and only the Slate would know.

Ace's small head landed on her shoulder. Kari wrapped an arm around his little body and pulled him in while the sun finally vanished in the waves.


	10. Strongest

**Strongest**

 _ **Everyone had a dream. All Monkey D. Lysa had ever wanted was to bring justice to the world. It killed her once. She wouldn't let it kill her again. Luffy's sister!OC**_

* * *

Ace had been standing on the deck of the _Moby Dick_ for the entire day. His hands faced the sky, outstretched. He looked like he was ready to catch someone. He had for hours. Whispers surrounded him on the ship. People speculating whether he'd lost his mind or whether they were missing something in the clear blue sky.

"Hey, Ace!" It was Thatch who finally came up to him, peering up at the sky from his place at Ace's side. The sky was clear.

"Hey, Thatch," Ace inclined his head absently. He wasn't paying any real attention.

"What are you doing?"

"Waiting."

"Ah, what for?" No sooner had the words left his mouth that the sky started yelling. It started faint, and only got louder.

"AaaaaAAAAAACE!"

The whole ship rocked with the impact, splashing into the water. Thatch yelped and lost his footing. He wasn't the only one who tripped or spilled across the wood. Some people scrambled for weapons.

Ace caught the girl that dropped out of the sky effortlessly, smiling down at her. Black hair, black eyes, and a grin that took up most of her face and was filled with too many teeth.

"Hey, Lys. Where's Lu?" he set her down on the deck. No sooner had the girl stepped back, her cap pushed firmly down on her head, than another person fell out of the sky. More black hair, more black eyes, but this one had a scar.

"There's Lu," she pointed at the boy now held in Ace's arms.

"Ace!" Thatch scrambled to his feet, "What's going on?!"

"It's March 3rd," he said, like that explained everything. "Pops already cleared it." Which explained a little bit more, because if Pops said it was okay for people to fall out of the sky into their new commanders arms, then it was okay for strangers to fall out of the sky into Ace's arms.

"Great. Who are they?" Thatch leaned down, peering at the girl. She glanced up at him and smiled brilliantly.

"We're his siblings! I'm Monkey D. Lysa! That's Luffy," she pointed to the boy that Ace was trying to pry off of him. His arms and legs had wrapped around and around and around him, like rope. "Sabo should be here soon."

"...Ace has siblings?" Thatch stared at her blankly, thoughts of Ace's bottomless pit of a stomach and how much the other _three_ Ace's could eat. Dear god. Thatch sucked in a breath a shouted at the top of his lungs, summoning his division as he sprinted for the kitchen.

"ACE IS MULTIPLYING! WE'RE FEEDING FOUR!"

There was a beat of silence before every man that worked under him started scrambling, running for the kitchen, the pantry, and the storage. This explained why Pops told them to load up last time they were ashore. He knew this was coming, and he didn't tell anyone about it!

The laughter of the two mini-Ace's followed him below deck.

* * *

Lysa snickered at she watched the man leave, leaning on Ace's shoulder.

"You didn't tell him we were coming? Did you even tell him what March 3rd is?" she elbowed her brother harmlessly. Luffy still hadn't let go of him. To be fair, they hadn't' seen Ace in a year, at least. Lysa would have been doing the same thing, if she wasn't too busy turning around to see all of the people staring at them. Had Ace told anyone they were coming?

"It may have slipped my mind. I told Pops though!"

"Oh good. So I the guy I'm gunning for knowns I'm here in advance. Thanks, brother dear," she drawled, making a face at the eldest brother she had.

Ace rolled his eyes. "There's no way you can beat Pops," he said flatly. Lysa shrugged. She knew that. She knew she wouldn't be able to beat Whitebeard yet. She was too weak, at this point she couldn't even beat their grandpa. It would be a few years, at least, before she was up to snuff. But she would get there, even if it killed her.

"Your faith in me is astounding. So, where is the old, badly named dude _?"_

Ace elbowed her. "Show Pops some respect," he demanded. Rather reluctantly, he pointed to where Whitebeard was sitting on his chair, watching the goings on in amusement. Luffy took one look at him and bolted for captain. Lysa, who had marginally more self control, trotted at his heels.

"Woah! You're mustache is huge man!" Luffy pointed at Pop's face.

To his credit, Whitebeard didn't so much as bat an eye when he looked down at the little scrap of a boy, not even a pirate yet, who stood before him. Lysa jammed her hands in her pockets and peered up at him. She had never seen such a massive human. Or, what Whitebeard a giant? That would make more sense… well, he was a little too small for a giant. Half maybe?

"Pops!" Ace skidded to a stop beside the two. He dropped one hand on each of their shoulders, pulling them back to him. Lysa stumbled willingly into his side. "This is my little brother, Luffy and my sister Lysa."

"Hello again," Lysa smiled and waved. "Thanks for looking after Ace. He's a mess."

Ace smacked her on the back of her head.

"No one asked you!"

Lysa just laughed at him.

* * *

 **18 Years Ago**

It started the day that Lisa Malarkey lit her mother's drapes on fire and ended the day a bullet was put through her skull.

The day started like any other day off. With Lisa shoving Circuit Board off of her face so she could sit up in her massive bed. The little tabby cat rolled onto her stomach and started stretching out, mirrored by her mistress. They rolled across the cruealean sheets together, feline and human.

Lisa popped her neck and rolled her shoulders before she finally got out of bed and wandered into the kitchen for her breakfast scramble, courtesy of Jimmy. Jimmy Dean. Her bare feet padded on the cold tile, sending a chill up her spine until she fetched her socks.

After that she got dressed for class, loose white pants and black T shirt that advertised Pierce Martial Arts on the back. She was on her way out, her back turned to lock the door when a car came tearing down the street. It was unusual. She was an attorney, she made good money and she lived in a good neighborhood. The house was still a rental, small for only her one person and cat with a well kept yard and a brand new paint job.

Lisa had time to turn around and see a red corvette that had been parked outside the courthouse for the past week along with her chevy before Circuit Board tried to scratch his way out the window towards her.

In the few seconds it took her to try and figure out what had gotten her normally calm kitty in such a tissy the car stopped and a man she recognized leapt from the driver's seat and came at her, something held tight in his hand.

The man she had called to the witness stand only one day earlier stormed up to her, murder in his eyes.

Lisa frowned and reached for the phone in her bag, or the knife there, but it was too late. He didn't need to come any closer. All he needed to do was bring his hand and point the barrel straight.

The young woman was dead before the sound of the gun shot could reach her ears.

She had never thought that being a public defender would end up getting her shot. She had gotten Melinda Cole off after she stabbed her husband in self defense, and in response Ethan Cole had driven to her cute little house a day later and put a bullet in her forehead.

That was end of Lisa Malarky.

It was the beginning of something more.


	11. Revel

**Revel**

 _ **Her whole life Victoria had only ever been one thing; pretty. She thought she was fine with that. She was wrong. KatakuriXoc**_

* * *

Among the three children of King Lysander there was Gemma, strong and cunning. Lucien, tenacious and unwavering. And Victoria. She was pretty.

In all truth Victoria was the eldest, but the fact of the matter was that there was nothing to be said of her besides the fact that she was pretty.

Gemma was a warrior born, fast and strong, a master of tactics and the human mind. It had been half a decade since anyone had been able to beat her in a fight. She was in charge of their military, and it was her fault Victoria was in this mess.

Lucien wasn't as good at fighting as Gemma. Things didn't come easy to her little brother, who had to struggle to perfect what came to easily to Gemma. Still, he worked harder than any of them, until he had earned their father's respect, and the adoration of their people. He was in charge of civilian legislature and upholding the law.

Victoria di Imperia was none of these things. She was simple, pretty.

The daughter of a former Dogaressa of Soldano and the King of Imperia she had been expected to be brilliant. To be a leader for their people to follow in the era that lay ahead, where pirates reigned across the sea and the land was at constant change.

She was none of those things.

Victoria had never excelled at anything in this life. Her tutors praised her for trying, her suitors patted her hand and complimented her hair.

That was fine with her.

Victoria had had her time as a genius, long before she was a princess. She had no wish to return there.

Though, maybe if she had shown off more she wouldn't have been where she was.

That is to say, in a palanquin bound for a place she really, really didn't want to be going.

A palanquin bound for her wedding.

"All will be well, princess," Madelle promised. The handmaiden was nearly identical to Tori. She was little less beautiful now-a-days, but when she had been brought into royal service it had been perfect. Her glossy hair was blue-black in the way the sea was at night, her face was porcelain and any blemishes were skillfully hidden under face paint. As they grew older the differences, while still small, became more apparent. Where Madelle's cheeks remained wide and fell into a narrow jaw Tori had kept her heart shaped face, with the puppy fat falling off of high cheekbones.

With the right contouring they were still identical.

If she had been attending a wedding with anyone less dangerous it would have Madelle wearing the white veil that day, but they couldn't afford to risk getting on the bad side of these people. So there Tori sat, her hands clasped in her lap.

Her head was held high and her eyes were fixed forwards as the litter came to a stop inside the courtyard. When the door opened she glided down the steps placed in front of her with a grace instilled in her from the day she was born into this world. Madelle followed after in a soft pastel yellow dress that wrapped around her throat before falling formlessly to the ground.

Faces followed her as she walked slowly towards the grand doors. It was something that Tori was very familiar with.

In truth, she was glad for her beauty. That was all people saw when they looked at her. They saw she was beautiful and that was all. Not even her own siblings had ever delved deeper. It gave her a type of freedom, liberated from the scrutiny her genius had earned her when she had been Victoria Iverson. Everyone had been watching her then, to see what Ivy League college she went to, to see what world changing career she chose.

This was better.

Sometimes it was lonelier, she would admit. Never had it been more evident than when she was walking down the aisle in front her new family.

With all eyes on her, and Madelle falling further back as they neared the priest, Tori was filled with a sense of isolation.

It was a credit to her father's rigorous lessons in geniality and manners that she didn't trip over her long skirt when she saw who was standing at the head of the aisle. A second son. That was… not normal. She had been expecting the thirtieth, twentieth maybe. The second was preposterous.

What was so important about her kingdom that she was to marry Charlotte Katakuri?

Well. Her life just got more interesting.

Tori turned a veiled smile up at him.

From the depictions in the manga she'd read all those years ago she had expected him to look live action Scrappy Doo. What she got instead was a man. An enormous one, true, but a man nonetheless.

This did bring to mind a few… issues, they would have as man and wife. Standing in front of him at the alter she was well aware that she only came up to his mid drift, and that was in heels. Perhaps his devil fruit could shrink him. Or, given the fact that Gol D Roger was only four years dead and she and her husband were both in the middle of their twenties, maybe she would find that gum gum fruit for herself.

Tori listened with half an ear for what the bishop was saying. _In sickness and in health. Until death do you part?_

"I do," she vowed.

She managed not to tense when the massive man before her lifted the long veil from her. A few of the people gathered gasped at her face.

She had heard some more romantic people refer to her as 'enchanting', 'peerless' and 'artlessly' beautiful. So she turned her most pleasant smile up at her new husband to prove them right. His eyes widened a faction before any thoughts faded from him.

"You may kiss the bride," the Bishop declared. Katakuri leveled him with a narrow eyed refusal. Tori had almost forgotten.

He was sensitive about his mouth.

Well, she could live with that.

Victoria tugged his hand towards her, drawing his dark eyes back to his new wife. He let her lay her lips on the back of his hand.

"There," she smiled softly at him. "Will that suffice?"

The bishop startled. "W-well. The man is meant to kiss the bride and-"

"Fine," Katakuri lowered himself. Tori was truly surprised. He wouldn't pull his scarf away just like that, right?

Right. He pulled hand up and, maneuvering her with a grip tight enough to warn her not to do anything foolish, guided her fingers behind the cloth. She felt the barest imprint of a mouth before her hand was pushed away and he stood up. She saw nothing of his mouth. No one did.

As one they turned the challenge to the bishop, daring him to contradict them.

He was sweating profusely when he nodded quickly.

"I now pronounce you man and wife!"

Cheers erupted around them. Someone called for the wedding cake. While they ran off Victoria turned away from her husband to watch the line that was made up of Madelle, her sister Gemma, a few ladies in waiting that had come with her. After a bit of prompting from Civilla, her cousin, the Charlotte girls joined the line as well, looking confused.

Perhaps it was a tradition native only to her island, as opposed to the whole world?

Whatever the case Victoria walked to each of them in turn, kissed a flower from her bouquet of stephanotis, and carefully wrapped the vine around the wrist of each unmarried woman she passed.

"What are these for?" a rather unfortunate looking girl asked. A scar cut across her face, between her eyes and down the left. She was… Brulee. That was it. It had been many years since Victoria had seen One Piece.

"For a happy marriage," she explained. "It's a tradition."

"A happy marriage… You don't need to give one to me," Brulee told her. Victoria came so close to tilting her head. The only thing that stopped her was a dozen of diamond drops in her carefully piled hair.

"Ah, if you don't want to get married they can also instill the desire to travel. Good for pirates, right?"

"Don't you see this scar on my face? It's horrible. I wouldn't get married happily," she said all of this with a smile that was frankly unnerving.

"Well," Victoria considered her words. "Just don't marry a shallow person. Love has a way of dismissing imperfections. So keep the flower, please? For luck."

"What would you know about imperfections?" one of the other girls challenged. Tori hadn't been planning on having a conversation like this. This was way too deep for a first meeting.

So, she smiled at them in a way that made glitter look dull.

"Me? Nothing at all."

She moved on, to the smallest girls, two little pink haired twins that got the very last of her bouquet. At the same time the cake was rolled in, bigger than anything that Tori had ever seen. Her Miss Congeniality mask slipped with her shock at the sight.

Brulee pushed her, not roughly, towards the table where Big Mom sat with her sons.

Tori lifted her skirts quickly to join her husband. Her father on her other side, looking the king he was in his fine suit and his golden crown. A small gold tiara sat in her own hair, with an identical stone as the one set in her fathers. A ruby.

Looking at the spread of deserts Tori found herself with a dilemma.

She was allergic to gluten. She couldn't eat anything in front of her.

Victoria thinned her lips to keep from laughing aloud. She was allergic to gluten, married to the minister of flour, and her favorite dessert was Mochi.

That was a problem that was easy enough to remedy. Married women in Imperia did not eat before their husbands, and given the fact that Katakuri wasn't going to eat period in front of all of these people she was at no risk of having to eat anything in front of her.

For the rest of her wedding Tori watched other people eat, laugh and dance while she sat next to her stoic husband, struggling not to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

What an interesting life this was!


	12. Golden Legacy

**Golden Legacy**

 _ **Shiloh is not a pirate. She gave that up long ago and lives the quiet life of a blacksmith. Until she meets her brother's gambit and the little princes he pals around with. Now, her quiet life is over.**_

* * *

Shiloh is not a pirate.

Not anymore, at least. She was once, what felt like a lifetime ago. When her brother was a cabin boy and she was still learning the basics of her craft. Back before that rainy day in Loguetown, before the Batarilla Purges that they had all be powerless to stop for fear of harolding in a buster call the second they stepped foot on land.

Shiloh is not a pirate, anymore.

Her brother is. A damn good one too, if she did say so herself. He was a good brother too, however absent he might be most of the time. He still called, sent her birthday presents and dropped by the few times he was outside the New World.

It was actually because of his latest visits that she found herself on this backwater island in the East Blue.

She had to meet the little boy that her brother had given up an arm to protect.

It was small, this place. Dawn Island wasn't so much as a quarter the size of Fiore, and what little of the island there was was almost entirely made up of massive forests. Shiloh tied her sash tighter around the delicate looking web of metal that outlined her body in just the way she liked.

She doubted she would need much protection, but it was best to be safe.

Shiloh looked around at the bright sun and the looming trees before she closed her eyes and let her senses spread out. From what Shanks had told her, she was looking for a little kid. So, she dismissed the village west of her, oddly devoid of little ones, and locked onto a trio of small humans in the woods. Woods that were filled with a strange amount of giant animals.

"And here I thought those only existed in the Grand Line," she mused. It was a little too hot for it, but Shiloh still kept her black leather jacket on. Even if she wasn't a pirate, she still looked like one. With a starting point somewhere in the woods Shiloh followed the senses that Rayleigh had drilled into her head for years, walking into the woods without an ounce of fear.

There was nothing on this island that she couldn't take on.

The forest was nice. The smell of flowers and foliage filled her as Shiloh walked on, humming an old shanty she remembered fondly.

 _Cross the gold and silver seas! The salty spray puts us at ease! Day and night to our delight, the voyage never ends_!

She was halfway through the corus when she broke through the trees and came to a rather curious sight. Three little boys, two older than the one, duking it out in front of a tree with lines carved in it. Shiloh's eyes grew wider when she saw a familiar straw hat on the head of the youngest child there.

Keeping herself quiet the young woman sat down in the grass, content to watch the trio go blow to blow in a free for all. Every few minutes it would circular who was fighting two on one.

She winced when a particularly hard hit landed on the littlest boy. He hit the ground, skidding a good couple of feet before he sat up, a petulant pout on his lips.

It was the cutest goddamn thing she had ever seen in her life.

So cute, in fact, she found herself giggling like she was teenager again, instead of the twenty five year old she actually was.

And that, gets their attention quite well.

Shiloh finds herself with two lead pipes pointing straight at her, their shiny tips threatening. Sort of. The scrunched up, serious faces of the children behind them are just too cute. Shiloh's face split with a grin.

"Dehehe," she laughed, pushing one of the pipes out of her face. "You kids are pretty cute."

"Who are you?" the one with the freckles demanded, stepping closer. Shiloh didn't so much as blink. She looked past his shoulder, to a little boy who was watching her with wide eyes under a too big hat.

"Hey, are you Shank's Anchor?" she asked, propping her chin on her fist. The boys whole face lit up.

"You know Shanks?" he lunged at her. The blond boy caught him around the middle and dragged him back.

"Luffy! You can't just run towards strangers," he scolded. Luffy. Huh. What a funny name.

"Deh, I'm not gonna hurt him," she promised. "I just came here to see Shanks' gambit. After all, I'd like to know the kid that my brother gave him precious hat too."

If possible, the littlest boys eyes got even wider. "Shanks is your brother?! That means your a Shanks too!"

That was… not at all true. Even if she did have the same bright red hair falling over his shoulders and the same dark black eyes she was certainly not Shanks.

"I'm a Shiloh," she corrected. "And you're Luffy, yeah?"

"Yeah," he nodded so fast she was surprised his head stayed on, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!" he screamed at the sky.

Shiloh choked on her own spit. Shanks hadn't mentioned _that_.

"So that why he gave you that," she reached forwards and knocked the tip of the straw hat down over the little boys eyes. There must really be something special about this boy.

"Huh? His hat! Yeah! He made me promise to give it back when I met him again as the Pirate King."

"Yeah? Makes sense, I guess. That hat saw Captain Roger through being the King."

The boy with the freckles stiffened. The blond looked at her curiously.

"Captain Roger? Like, Gold Roger?"

"Gol _D_. Roger," Shiloh corrected.

Luffy bounced up to her, pushing the hat up. "Did you know him? Did Shanks?" he got right in her face.

"Well yeah," Shiloh scratched her cheek. "Didn't Shanks tell you? We served on the Oro Jackson when we were younger." She rolled her sleeve further up to show off the Jolly Roger on the back of her wrist better. She never hid it. Being part of the Roger Pirates was the proudest time in her life. She would die before she denied that that was what she had been.

"Shanks never told me that!" Luffy grabbed her hand and yanked it forwards, stars in his eyes. "So coooool!"

"Dehe, I can't say I'm surprised," her smiled turned bittersweet. "I'm pretty sure the worst day of our lives happened because of that."

The boy with the freckles scoffed. "If you were sailing with a devil when else do you expect."

The smile vanished entirely. Shiloh pressed her lips together and reminded herself that he was a child. He didn't know what he was saying.

"Captain Rogers was the closest thing I've ever had to a father," she told him. Gunmetal grey eyes locked onto her, startled. She didn't look away. "Same for Shanks, same for Buggy. We grew up on the Oro Jackson. We were in Loguetown when he died. That was the worst day of my life, kid. I'm sure you've heard all this crap government propaganda about him, but I'll tell you this. None of it is true. Gol D. Roger was one of the best men to ever live."

Her eyes stung but she held back. She had cried enough in the last decade.

"Tell me about your adventures!" Luffy demanded, bouncing up to her like a rubber ball. He broke between a narrow eyed blond and the other boy, who was staring at her like she had the mysteries of the world tucked into her pocket.

Shiloh nodded, smiling kindly. "Sure, Luffy. Why don't I tell you about the island in the sky…"

* * *

Shiloh knew the kid was following her even as she made her way into town and booked a room in the Double Dolphin Inn. It wasn't the nicest place in the world, but it would do for her trip here. She wanted to get to know Luffy, and his little friends too. Brothers, he'd said. Sabo and Ace.

It was Ace she left the door unlocked for. She went about removing her armor carefully, starting with the tassets that she lay on dresser. She unclipped the cuirass and laid it down next to the back piece. She had designed all of this with the thought in mind that she needed to be able to take it off and put it on on her own. She didn't have anyone around to help.

She waited until it was long after dark before she finally gave up on waiting for Ace to get up the courage to knock. Or to decide whether or not be wanted to try and beat her with a pipe. Shiloh wasn't sure which one it was.

Still, she went and pulled the door open.

The second the knob turned Ace was gone, bolting around a corner.

Shiloh watched his heels disappeared, privately impressed with his speed.

* * *

Three days into her stay on Dawn Island and someone finally got the idea to try and mug the pretty young girl in what looked like a silver embroidered shirt. This armor, her 'Blues' armor, was made to be delicate looking. It was, in all actuality, incredibly durable and entirely sensible.

Shiloh just liked to feel pretty.

Her own vanity, it attracted trouble. Honestly she had expected trouble to come sooner than three days in. She had been getting followed around by the Trouble Trio, as she liked to call the little Anchor and his cohorts. Every night Ace followed her back to her room, and ever night he ended up running away. She would admit she was curious, but she could wait.

She felt them tailing her when she walked out of Edge Town and into the Grey Terminal, a festering pile of rot and poverty. Walking there with something shiny on your chest was just asking to get mugged.

Which was exactly what happened.

The man that stepped in front of her was a massive beast, towering easily over the young woman. He wasn't alone either. There were two others flanking him, and she could feel five more lining up behind her. Her observation Haki wasn't the best, in all honesty if Rayleigh hadn't insisted that she, Shanks, and Buggy all got trained thoroughly she would have never bothered with it. It was still good enough to give her forewarning, and tell her what was around.

"Alright little girl, give us the silver."

It would have been easy to tell them that it was steel, not silver. It would have been easy to just run the other way.

"...nah."

"Maybe you don't understand the position your in," he pulled out a gun and pointed it at her chest. Her armored chest. The bullet would bounce right off.

"I said no. Put that away before someone gets hurt."

"Ghera! Have it your way," his grin was positively blood thirsty. Shiloh sighed, disappointed. She was always up for a good fight, but this… She put a hand on the hilt of her long knife and tilted her head.

She stepped past him and walked on. Behind her, the would be attacker collapsed on the ground, blood pooling under him. His associates fell, one at a time, each one cut up.

The knife clicked back into place and she wandered off, bound for the forest. Behind her, the three little boys came running after her. Luffy hit her leg with the force of a small canon ball. Shiloh picked him up by the back of his shirt, bringing him up to eye level.

"You know, you boys don't have to stay that far back. We can walk side by side."

She learned later she shouldn't have said that.


	13. Raftel

**The sisters Teneyck didn't belong one the Thousand Sunny. Of course, they didn't belong in this world period. With the secret to Raftel in Lenore's back pocket, they aren't leaving any time soon.**

Len had to turn the key three times to get it to work right. The first time she accidentally locked it, the second time she forgot the deadbolt, third time was the charm and the door swung open to the apartment inside.

She paused at the threshold, light spilling out behind her. She didn't leave lights on. And someone was moving in the kitchen.

Slowly, she dropped her bag on the floor as quiet as she could and looked to the bat she kept in the corner. She took three steps towards it when a face she barely recognized appeared in the doorway. She paused, staring at the bright green eyes and the matching pastel hair that floated around pierced ears.

"Jen?" she guessed. The girl looked nothing like the last time she had seen her. "You're early. And colorful."

"Yeah, I got impatient," she shrugged, the shoulder of a familiar shirt slipping off her shoulder. Len gave her a look.

"You got that from my closet! And you got tomato sauce on it! Bitch, you better clean that up," she pointed to the spot, propping her other hand on her hip. Her red lips pursed. Jen stared at her for a second before they both fell apart laughing. Len reached out to pull her sister into a hug.

"I'm glad you're here. How'd the folks take your leaving?" she pushed Jen back so she could look her up and down. "Jesus, you're taller than me now!"

Jen snickered and stood tall, standing eye to eye with her. It was only that way because Len was in three inch heels.

"They were pissed. They couldn't believe that their baby girl was running off to the Big Apple to be a biomedical engineer!"

"I still don't know why," Len said bluntly. "And, no one calls it the Big Apple here. Except to mock tourists. You ate, yeah?"

"Ordered pizza."

"With whose money?"

"I have my own!" Jen declared. Len gave her the Look until she relented. They both knew she was flat broke. "Twenty bucks from Grandpa Max. He gave me a ride to the airport, and the taxi was only five bucks."

"What the hell taxi did you take?" Len would kill for something that cheap. The only time she'd ever gotten one for less than twenty was the time she flashed the driver on accident. And on purpose. _Maybe I should do that more often…_

"Dunno, it was at the airport," Jen shrugged. "Anyways, I'm still hungry. What else is there to eat? Your fridge is empty!"

"I usually eat at work," she defended. "And things that aren't refrigerated last longer."

"Like the ten jars of peanut butter you have?" Jen teased. Len promptly shoved her onto the couch.

"Diss my food and you can find your own," she declared, abandoning the whining pile on the couch to got to her room. She abandoned her heels, slacks, and blouse to slip into her favorite fluffy pajamas. Who needed to pay for heat when you lived ten stories up and had long sleeve shirts with puppies on them?

… she was a very mature twenty eight year old.

While she was in there she checked her phone, grimacing at the two dozen calls and hundred and a half texts from their _loving_ mother. The woman was nuts. Len ignored all of them and went back to check on Jen, who had found her tv remote and was watching the news with utter boredom.

"I thought exciting things happened in this city," she complained as the newscaster went on about the cold front coming in. Len snickered and dropped onto the couch beside her, putting a hand on the girls newly green head.

"You know," she said, "I saw a dragon when I was living in L.A."

"You did not!" Jen stared up at her, mouth open. "Why would you leave that?!"

"I got a better job here, I wanted to see the city, I like the subway, the Dark Watchers freaked the frick out of me… you can take your pick." Lenore did not add the one where Jen had been talking about going to Columbia for the past four years. There was no way that she would have been able to afford to pay for housing _and_ school. School, she could get grants and scholarships. Housing was a little different. Now, Jen wouldn't have to worry about it.

"What's a Dark Watcher?" Jen asked, flipping through the channels.

"They're these weird, dark things that watch people from the mountain ridge. Sometimes they have hats."

"What do they do?" she stopped on One Piece.

"Nothing really. They just watch you. It's creepy," Len shrugged. "I don't have sheets on your bed yet."

"It's cool, I can put them on," Jen shrugged carelessly. On screen, the Strawhat Pirates pinky swore to see Shirahoshi again.

"Mhmm. When do your classes start?" she propped her feet on the coffee table, knocking into an empty soda can. Outside the window the sun sunk down over the rooftops, leaving the streets in neon lights.

"Two weeks. Long enough to get a job, right?"

"You don't need to, you know. But yeah."

"There is no way you make enough money to just support the both of us easy," Jen stared up at her. Len could only shrug.

Working for David Xanatos paid well.

* * *

There were some things that Len had accepted about working for David Xanatos.

The coffee in the breakroom was only worth drinking of Owen had brewed it, even if it was just asking him to push the button on the Keurig.

Amanda in Sales was never leaving, no matter how many interns she sent crying out the door.

David Xanatos did not need, nor want a bodyguard.

Most importantly, David Xanatos was into some _shady shit_.

Len had learned long ago not to question it when he brought weird ideas to her department or asked her to draw up blueprints. They had been getting progressively more weird in the last few weeks, but Len looked the other way and took her paycheck. She did her job, and went home to her nice apartment in Manhattan, or ran the streets looking for mischief or cute boys.

So, she didn't know what she was walking into when she got off the elevator in the Eyrie building to discuss his latest idea. The last few floors of the skyscraper were home to a castle that her eccentric billionaire boss had stuck on top. It could have been making a smaller cell phone, or it could have been devising a way to turn the whole castle in a mecha, Soul Eater style.

Lenore wasn't accustomed to castles. She knew city streets, and subway stations. Most of the time she got lost and had to call Owen to come find her. Most of the time she was there during the day.

Tonight, there were a lot of things that were different. She had an 18 year old sitting in her living room watching reruns of One Tree Hill, she had taken a cab instead of the subway. She had arrived after dark.

Len took the hallway down the right at a brisk job, her heels clicking softly to forewarn anyone of her coming. Sneaking up on Owen often resulted in pain on her part. Sneaking up on David Xanatos, black belt in five different martial arts that she knew of, was even worse.

For the first time in her life, she got the right door on the first try. She swung it open and walked in, flicking her hair out of her face to look a little more presentable.

"Hey boss, I'm here!" she announced cheerfully, kicking the door shut behind her. Something moved in the shadows. Lenore glanced over, pausing when she caught a hulking figure standing in the darkest corner of the room. A small one with wild hair stood next to him. Her brows furrowed.

"Am I interrupting?" she asked, ignoring the vague worry that shivered down her spine. David sat behind the desk, his fingers steepled. He always had an unflappable sense of control about him that Lenore was determined to one day mimic. For now, she settled on fearless cheer.

"Lenore, I wasn't expecting you to find your way here so soon," his eyes sparkled at his own joke.

Len rolled her eyes fondly and smiled, adjusting her grip on her shoulder bag. "You should be glad I'm finally getting the hang of this castle. I swear, I'm going to turn the corner one day and die from heart failure because you moved one of the gargoyles."

"You're afraid of gargoyles?" David got one of those I-Know-More-Than-You smiles on his face. Lenore huffed.

"Sir, I'm about as afraid of a gargoyle as I am martians."

David laughed at her. "Why don't you wait outside for a few minutes. My friends are… shy."

Len read that as 'they're here to help me break the law and don't want any witnesses'.

"Sure," she agreed. She glanced at the shadows and offered the pair of them a smile before she stepped out of the room. She knew better than to get involved. When she was a teenager she hadn't been able to keep her nose in her own business if her life depended on it, literally. Now, she knew how to pick her battles.

Specifically, the fun ones that wouldn't cost her her job.

Len hummed under her breath, getting halfway through All Star before the door swung open and David walked out, looking entirely too smug. He didn't stop walking, so Len started following.

"What am I doing this week, bossman?" she asked, skipping in next to him.

"This one's going to take you more than a week," David warned, taking her down a staircase, to a secondary elevator Len had never seen before. Not that she really remembered most of what she saw in the old castle, besides the bricks, tapestries, and carpets that cost more than her rent.

"Really?" her eyes lit up at the prospect of a challenge. She may have been his Director of Product Development at Scarab Corporation, but challenges seemed increasingly hard to find these days.

"Really," David smiled at her and got them down to a lap on what was the eighteenth floor. "Think you're up for it?"

He opened the door, flicked the light on, and Len was met with a massive workshop, a pack of interns, and a life sized picture of a gargoyle. A smile slowly spread across her face.

"How long were they sitting in the dark?" she asked, jerking a thumb at a ginger girl ten years younger than her. David didn't answer.

"I expect them ready by the end of the month," he told her, and shut the door behind him. Lenore turned to her team of new minds and fresh hands. Her smile grew into something less nice.

"We'll have in done in two weeks if it kills us."

Her interns were decided more pale.

* * *

Jennifer Ainsel Teneyck was delighted.

At eighteen she had never had a job before, she had never even interviewed for one, and now she was sitting in an introductory class for her future as a 'Softlines Sales Associate' at Target. She flipped her learners permit around in her fingers, fidgeting nervously while she sat between a boy missing a tooth two years younger, and older lady half her height that seemed utterly disinterested.

She felt a little stupid for not having a license, but reminded herself that her sister hadn't gotten her until she was twenty, for the same reason Jen only had her permit then. Their parents had deemed driving too dangerous for their children and forbid them from learning.

Not that that stopped Len. She was always sneaking out. Jen was a much better daughter, and only started learning when she was old enough to decide for herself.

A man walked in, carrying a handful of folders that he passed out to everyone in the training class that detailed their contracts, responsibilities, rules and policies. Jen thought her head was going to spin right off her shoulders.

Her smile didn't disappear once, not even when she walked out of the building and found the sun long set. She breathed in the pollution of the city. She didn't know if she loved or hated it.

It was harder to breath, and for some reason the people in New York just put their trash on the sidewalks. It really wasn't a nice smell at all, not compared to the small town air that she had left behind in Oklahoma.

For Jen, though, it was more than the smell of too many people and too many cars, it was more than the noise of angry drivers and advertisements.

New York was a place of freedom and new beginnings, things she had never gotten before. New York was the first place she didn't feel like a prisoner in her own home. New York was her future, her destiny.

She looked around the parking lot for her sister and found the older girl standing beside a taxi.

Len was almost eleven years older than her, she had her whole life set up, a beautiful apartment, a good job, and she always seemed happy.

Jen wondered if she would end up that way, or if she would be better, or worse.

New York was a place of beginnings, and she was just getting started.

* * *

Len had never been gladder that she was granted access to unpaid interns of her choosing than when the finally, finally finished the Iron Clan. They were all capable, the ones that had withstood her vicious workaholism.

By the end of the first week she had gone from two dozen, to fifteen. By the time they finished the project on day thirteen, she had six left.

Now, the six of them sat in front of her, looking totally dead. Dark circles rounded their eyes, their shoulders were slumped and Phillip was steadily dropping closer to his coffee.

Lenore had started the tradition some time ago, taking out whoever stuck with her to get free breakfast or dinner or whatever when they finally finished their commision.

"Miss Lenore," Tiffany said around a mouth full of eggs. "C'n I ask som-fin?"

"Shoot."

Tiffany swallowed quickly. Tom perked up and Phillip lifted his head, blinking blearily. So, they'd been talking behind her back huh?

"What exactly is RAFTEL? And what is the ARC?"

Len put down her fork. Her smile ebbed away.

"RAFTEL… Where'd you hear about that?"

"It was um… it was, well. One Piece?"

Tom sat up straight. "It was something they told us not to ask about when we were getting our pictures taken for our ID's."

"So that's it. You're not going tell me?"

No one looked her in the eye.

"Alright then. RAFTEL is a special project between me and Mr. Xanatos. Forget your ever heard it if you know what's good for your health."

* * *

The campus was beautiful during the day, but at night it was another story. It made Jen glad for her sister walking her home. They were talking about something nonsensical, whether wolverine or spider-man would win in a fist fight, when they turned the corner and the hair on the back of Jen's arms stood up.

They weren't alone. Along with her sister had come two of her interns to pick up her sister, Phillip Temple and Tiffany Hart.

Len caught her elbow and pulled her to a stop.

"Hey, mosshead, wanna go on an adventure."

Jen snickered and ran her fingers through her hair. She loved the color. And as far as nicknames went it beat out her last one by a mile.

"What's that supposed to mean? Taking the subway at night?" she turned to looked at her sister. Len's smile was lopsided and there was a spark in her eyes.

"No, no. I mean walking through that," she pointed.

Jen looked again into the dark alley, squinting. It was creepy and she didn't want to go in it but there wasn't anything that weird about it. Except.

Except the air looked like it had been broken. Like a window that had been shattered and the glass was frozen in the air.

"What is it?" Jen's heart started pounding harder in her chest. Len let go of her arm and walked forwards a few steps, until she was close enough to touch the floating shards of glass. There was something beyond it. Something light spilled in from it. Colorful too. It definitely wasn't the other side of an NYC alley.

"Could be nothing. Could lead to Noah's Arc. There's only one way to know for sure," Len said. She gripped her shoulder bag tighter. It was bigger than usual today. The two interns exchanged looks.

Jen pulled her backpack closer to her. Her pulse picked up. This wasn't normal. Things like what she was looking at didn't exist outside of Primeval. She didn't know what would happen if she walked into it.

Jen dug her sneakers into the ground and ran straight into it.

* * *

Len woke up in a very strange room.

It had wooden walls and a few pictures on the wall. By her head was a bunch of glass vials. It smelled heavily like antiseptics and medicines, but it wasn't sterile like a hospital.

She sat up slowly. The cot she was on was not the only one in the room. There were three others. She could see her sister's chopped green hair on one, Tiffany's red, and Phillip's tight black curls.

None of them were up and moving yet.

"Luffy! One of them woke up!"

Lenore looked over to the side, where a little creature in a hat had hopped off of a spinning chair and was walking towards her. That looked like Chopper. And the boy in the strawhat sitting against the door looked like Luffy.

She ran her fingers through her short brown hair, pausing to note that it was wet. Not noah's arc, but the Thousand Sunny. She grinned.

 _RAFTEL will soon be complete, bossman._

"Hello there," she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Bracing her elbows on her knees she leaned down to make eye contact with the Straw Hat doctor.

"How are you feeling?" Chopper asked, approaching her with a stethoscope. Len held still while he checked her pulse, blood pressure, temperature and lungs.

"I feel fine. I take it that's thanks to you, doctor?"

Chopped blushed cutely.

"We found you floating in the sea. Do you remember anything?"

"Well… last I remember we were walking home. There was something up in the air. Like uh, like someone broke a window and glued them in the air. I asked my sister," she pointed to the green splotch. "If she wanted to go on an adventure and see what was on the other side. Then she ran in and the rest of us followed. I guess one the other side was the ocean. Thank you for saving us, doctor…?"

"Chopper!" he held up a hoof. Len grabbed it and shook firmly.

"Thank you Doctor Chopper. You must be wonderful at what you do!" she smiled warmly at him. He turned a darker red.

"Saying that won't make me happy you dumb woman," he cupped his cheeks and twisted back and forth.

Len looked around them. Now that she was more aware she noticed that they were rocked slowly. Her gaze turned to Luffy.

"Straw Hat… captain?" she guessed.

"You recognize me, huh?" he put his hand on his hat, smiling hugely at her.

"I've seen you before. I'm Lenore, by the way. My friends call me Len."

"Hi! So what are you going to do now?" Luffy plopped on Choppers vacated chair and leaned his arms on the back of it. "Will you stay with us until we're on the next island?"

"I would think so. Unless you're planning on tossing us back into the sea, we don't have that many options," she lifted a shoulder. She just hoped the next island wasn't Punk Hazard or something.

"Hey, hey, what happened to your arm?" Luffy asked next. Len glanced at her sister and the interns before she held a finger up to her lips.

"Shh, please. They don't know about it," she said quickly. "But I did do it myself, if you have to know something."

"Why wouldn't you tell them about it? It looks cool!"

She gave Luffy a rather petulant frown. "I'll tell you about my arm if you tell me about your chest."

Luffy pouted at her. "Fiiiine. So are you a marine then? Or a pirate?"

She shook her head quickly. "No, no. I'm a scientist is all. I'm the Director of Product Development at Scarab Corporation. Those two," she pointed, "Are my interns. Phillip Temple and Tiffany Hart."

"Oh. I see," Luffy said firmly. Len was very sure that he did not see at all. Still, she didn't feel like calling him on it.

"Yeah. My sister's a student. She'd going into… medical something… Is this some kind of interrogation, Captain?"

"Shishishi, sorry, I have to make sure you're not a marine, or it could be trouble for me and my crew."

Lenore laughed, leaning back on the bed. "You don't have to worry about that. I don't think any of us could hold a candle to you in a fight, and if I had the option I'd tear the government out at the roots. No marine business for me."

Not to mention how many laws she had broken in her lifetime. So many.

"Okay then! You guys can stay with us until we get to Dressrosa."

Dressrosa.

Oh boy.

"Sounds like my baby sister is in for one helluva first adventure!"


	14. Strongest 2

**Strongest: 2**

 **This isn't even a finished scene, I just wanted to get it out of my head. Sorry!**

Sengoku knew that Garp had three grandchildren. He knew this because the man never _shut up_ about them. Ace, who was his first and was, admittedly cute in the baby pictures that he had shoved in the admirals face at every opportunity and was nearing being eight. Sengoku didn't know where he kept Ace, and he was just as happy not knowing. He was sure the boy would be trouble one day, considering exactly how much of the budget each month went to fixing walls.

His youngest was Luffy, who Sengoku had also never met before but had been _swarmed_ with photographs off( if he ever got his hands on Garp's camera, he was going to break it to pieces.). Luffy was barely five, but anyone who's name included 'Monkey D.' In it was bound to be a pain in his ass sooner or later.

Well, maybe not _everyone_. Garp's middle grandkid and only granddaughter was nice enough.

Creepy, though.

For whatever reason she was the only one that Garp had seen fit to bring to Marineford with him when he'd been called back early from his vacation.

Monkey D. Lysa, five years old, about forty inches tall, and had sufficiently terrified every marine he had sent to keep an eye on her. She disappeared without warning, laughed hysterically for no reason at all, and telling horribly grim and bloody stories.

That was why she was sitting in his office now, coloring happily on the floor with a box of crayons that Garp had left her with and a pad of paper. Instead of his poor, poor walls. There were already scribbled under the window, a sun with a smiley face that looked suspiciously like a certain pirate flag he knew.

Sengoku tried not to focus too much on what she was drawing. He had work to do too, he didn't have time for babysitting!

He grimaced when time off requests came across his desk. Every day he got them and every day he had to juggle who he could afford to let leave and who he didn't feel like fighting. His eyes skittered off the page until they landed on the little girl doodling happily at his feet.

The drawing made his squint. That was a lot of red. And a person. Who was smiling. One of the teeth had been colored out black.

Sengoku knew he would regret opening his mouth. He just knew it.

"What are you drawing?"

Lysa looked up at him.

"That's Rosie," she said, passing the picture up to him. On the person, which was strangely detailed for a five year old, were eight black holes and a whole lot of red. Yellow hair was curled around the messy smiley face.

"He's very… pretty," wasn't that what you were supposed to tell children?

Lysa hummed. "He's a hundred and fifteen and a half inches tall," she said precisely. "And he's going to die."

Sengoku was starting to understand why no one else wanted this job. Lysa started drawing something else in a lot of pink and a little bit of orange.

"That's sad, isn't it?" he put the grim drawing on his desk. Lysa reached up and slapped her new on down on top, a flamingo wearing sunglasses.

"It is. That's his brother, Don Flamingo," Lysa slapped her stack of papers up next to his and, crayon box tucked under her arm, she scrambled up onto his lap. He could see where she was learning her manners.

"I'm trying to work," he objected. Lysa ignored him completely.

"This is important," she said petulantly. "Don Flamingo is going to kill Rosie because Rosie is secretly a marine and Don Flamingo is a pirate! And he's going to find out because Rosie wants to tell you," she pointed at his face, "That he's got evidence that Don Flamingo wants to rule the world so you can put him in Intel Down."

"Impel Down," Sengoku said mildly. Lysa's face scrunched up.

"That's what I said! You gotta _listen_! The first heart man was the heart guy in the marines, Virgin! No, no, um. Vertuo. Gah!" Her whole face twisted and turned red. "Vergo! He's not a marine, he's a pirate and Rosie isn't a pirate he's a marine but he wants to help the Law because he's a D too and because he loves him but he'll die! On Minion island, in the North Blue!"

Sengoku watched in a certain fascination as she grabbed a red crayon and started drawing a heart, adding swirls all over it like a devil fruit.

"Because he won't listen when you tell him not to get the fruit because he loves the Law!"

Lysa turned her narrowed eyes up at him, expectantly.

Sengoku was right. He did regret asking. Even if the imaginary world the girl put together was amusing and, admittedly, confusing. But she was five, so that was to be expected right?

Sengoku picked her up off of her lap and put her on the floor, with her drawings.

"That's very creative. Thank you for telling me."

Her face got even redder and Sengoku was suddenly reminded that he knew nothing about children. Where was Rocinante when he needed him? Her little hands, clenched into fists, started shaking. Even a blind man would know what came next.

Her scream was ear splitting.

Sengoku vowed to kill Garp when he came back.

* * *

Lysa hated being a child. She hated it!

Even though her brain was old enough to understand and have control of herself and her actions, her tiny, stupid, five year old body was not. Her drawings were leagues better than anyone else her age, but still looked cartoonish. Her vocabulary was vast but her mouth wouldn't for the words she wanted.

Her head knew that there was no point in screaming but her little body was too small to hold up all her frustrations and she ended up pitching a fit she couldn't stop in the office of one of the most powerful men in the world.

Consciously she understood that she was little, why would he listen to some stupid story by a little girl who couldn't even properly pronounce 'Rocinante' or 'Doflamingo'?

The part of her that was a little girl who couldn't get her point across and not a lawyer tired of this happening for the last five years was the part that was screaming bloody murder and bawling about Sengoku not listening to her.

The marine stared down at her, totally lost. He definitely didn't have kids, let alone grandkids.

So a screaming child at his feet was brand new.


End file.
